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That's because Kyoto Animation produced both of them. Like, take Galaxy Angel and Digi Charat for example. Galaxy Angel had ALOT of Digi Charat in-jokes and even character appearances as well because they were both produced by Broccoli. Oh, speaking of Kyoto Animation, why did Suzumiya Haruhi become such a successful series even when it's only 14 eps long? Sorry to get a little off-topic but usually I wouldn't think almost anyone would like a series that has people who don't like normal people, witches, time travellers, breast grabbing, people dressing up like loli-bunny people and vice versa. Okay, back on topic! I saw the RAW of Lucky Star this morning and it was sooooo cute! Konata sounds really cute! She reminds me of one of my friends who is also short and loves anime and manga. Tsukasa and Kagami are also soooo kawaii! Tsukasa reminds me of...well, me for some odd reason. Gah I like'em anyway! The series is soooo random AND cute! Akira reminds me of Taiin from Shounen Onmyouji cuz' of her cheerful personality and voice (That's obvious! They have the SAME seiyuu!).
Well that's because The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya was absolute genious in characters and comedy. It's really hard to put it any other way. It has some of my favorite characters of any anime (Kyon rules them all) and is amazingly funny. I don't know if many other shows would have been able to pull of the non-chronological releases either.
I'm holding back on downloading the RAW and just decided to wait for the sub. Hopefully one of the groups that has picked it up will release episode 1 soon.
Oblivious to the World - My Blog
Barbobot's Anime List
Current Top 5 Ongoing (Updated for Winter '10 01/10)
1. Durarara!
2. To Aru Kagaku no Railgun
3. Katanagatari
4. Kimi ni Todoke
5. Dance in the Vampire Bund
Special Nod to Ongoing Series: Cross Game, FMAB
I claim the green haired girl in the intro if nobody else has yet!
YESSS more Aya Hiranoooo yay XD
Her name is Minami Iwasaki for future reference.
Let's see if I can name them all:
-Tsukasa Hiiragi: Short light-purple hair
-Konata Izumi: Long blue hair
-Kagami Hiiragi: Long light-purple hair
-Miyuki Takara: Long pink hair
-Minami Iwasaki: Short green hair
-Yutaka Kobayakawa: Light red hair with pig tails
-Hiyori Tamura: Long black hair, wears glasses
-Misao Kusakabe: Short brown hair
-Ayano Minegishi: Long orange hair
-Patricia Martin: Short light orange hair, blue eyes
Key's newest game is called Rewrite. Click image to go to the Key thread.
- Kanon, Air, Clannad, Little Busters!
Newly released sub from SF-subs: Lucky Star 01 torrent
Sadly there is no karaoke yet, but they will be releasing a version tomorrow or the day after with karaoke. They just wanted to get this out quickly. Too bad all my torrents have been going slowly today and backing up. Got 7 running right now at once.
I can't decide on my favorite girl. It's either gonna be Kagami, Miyuki, or Misao. I'll probably make a decision once I actually see the three of them in action. For those that have seen the RAW what are these 3 characters like? or at least Misao cause I think there was a flier posted a page back that had some stuff written about Kagami and Miyuki.
Oblivious to the World - My Blog
Barbobot's Anime List
Current Top 5 Ongoing (Updated for Winter '10 01/10)
1. Durarara!
2. To Aru Kagaku no Railgun
3. Katanagatari
4. Kimi ni Todoke
5. Dance in the Vampire Bund
Special Nod to Ongoing Series: Cross Game, FMAB
and i claim the main character whos short with really long blue hair. shes kawaii. lol
copyright! shes all mine!
Misao doesn't appear in episode one. In fact, only the four main girls of Konata, Kagami, Tsukasa and Miyuki make an appearsance; this anime is 24 episodes so give it time, they have the time to stretch it out a bit.
Just saw the first episiode------ awesome--------
the animation.... of the op.......the op song.........everything was awesome and Aya hirano Rulez. Konata Izumi Ruleeeee
By the way ¿Where is the head of the chocolat rolls?? The bigger end or the smaller end? xDDDD
Well then I officially claim Minami Iwasaki.
Domo for the info.
With all of you claiming various characters, I hereby claim Patricia Martin, she (other than Konata and the Hiiragi twins) was my favorite character on the Drama CD, though she did get hard to understand from time to time *sweatdrop*
I just hope that Nozomi Sasaki can live up to Patty's role, Satsuki Yukino was perfect on the Drama CD.
Yeah, Just loved the first ep and the OP is one of the best ever. Need to see more. Some of the jokes were just so stupid but that is what makes it so funny
I just saw the first episode by SF-S Fansubs and I just love this show...the food conversation was done really well. Its just great....I'm can even say its the 1st or 2nd funniest new anime series of this season.....I just feel that its more funnier than Hayate no Gotoku!...but I'm not really sure...they're both great. It reminds me of few of the great anime series I've seen. The SF parody as Guile being the foreigner.
Claimings removed.
I really can't wait for the next episode....I want to also see another group sub this anime as well. I didn't really like how they set the subtitles in this episode, like the "notes" being on the bottom with the characters' lines....I had to stop to read the notes...bah. But overall, SleepingForest Subs did a great job.....did they sub Air Gear as well ? I don't think they did....anyways it don't matter already seen Air Gear.
My Incomplete Anime List =P
Seishun Bakusou!
LUNA is mine!!!!!!!!!!!!
TYPE-MOON Slave....TSUKIHIME ROCKSSSS!!!!
TITLES ---> JCD-Ô-SAMAのスパム! ~*JCD - His Majesty of Spam(hood)*~!! nickname given by the Lovely Orofena
Captain(Taichou) of GHFC ~*Ghost Hunt Fan Club*~!!
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Leader of YNSHFC ~*Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge Fan Club*~!!
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haha just finished watching this anime.
The OP was awesome. The anime has great randomness that isn't stupid. The main character which would probably be my favorite is so awesome. haha everything is just random. Akira was funny and reminded me of mahoraba.
Dl'ing the manga to this to see how it is. haha so far this is like the perfect anime to me ^^.
Cute girls intrested in anime and games...
What else is there to ask for?
Ah a Cute/attractive girl like that as your G/F!!!
Kona is mine.. i claim her.. the blue haird girl.. I wonder what her gamerscore is? 320k+?
I watched the first episode I thought it was interesting. I want to see where this goes.
I wonder if the opening dance catches on like The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
I actually thought the first ep was kind of cute. Maybe a little boring in some parts, though the whole how they eat certain foods discussion had me laughing since I love to talk about food, it's almost but not quite as good as eating great food. The background music on certain scenes (like the first cafeteria scene) made me laugh too. I like the opening and ending song though I think some of the other new shows have better music. All in all I will keep an eye out for the next ep to see if it gets better as it goes along.
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Proud member- Founder & namer of LCFC ~ "Lovely Complex Fan Clubbers"
I agree the Op was awesome couldn't hlep but want to listen to it over and over. do anybody know where to download it yet
Tsukino, you can try both gendou.com, but I doubt the song will be out yet. It usually takes a few eps before a song comes out and it's usually only tv size. Hope this helps. I actually forgot that Aya Hirano was doing the voice for one of these characters. Now I'm really glad I gave this show a chance.
Whoops I think I may have this anime confused with another that Aya Hirano is doing. Sorry.
Proud Member of the NBP ~*Nana Blogish Posters*~!!
Proud Member of NOHH Night Owls *~Hoot*Hoot~*!!
Proud member of AA ~*Anime Addicts~*!!
Proud member of MSFGFC ~*Manabi Straight Forward Go Fan Clubber*~!!
Proud member- Founder & namer of LCFC ~ "Lovely Complex Fan Clubbers"
I'd like to disagree with you agout this being funnier than hayate. I bet you havn't read the hayate manga. the anime is overly censored and kinda lame but the manga is just great ( can be found at musashi quality homesite) i just get the feeling that the intro to this anime was overly hyper and just unneccessary. also the story seems abit random, like its not really going anywhere, its really random to me .... kinda like hidamari sketch. to me they are kinda similar and im not sure its in a good way . sorry but i just had to say that, to me it felt too childish. SORRY for offending all you lucky star lovers
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Daniels shared songs he has written that have personal relevance and comedic flair.
It was the Chelsea resident's first performance in Muskegon.
Daniels is on a 48-city tour that began Aug. 20 and concludes Dec. 4. He also performed last year in Grand Haven and has played this year in Mount Pleasant, Ionia and Augusta.
His performance was to help the Frauenthal celebrate a major milestone. The theater, which is part of the Frauenthal Center for the Performing Arts, is home to the West Michigan Symphony and youth symphony, Muskegon Civic Theatre and Muskegon Community Concert Association.
Daniels' performance was the first of a year of special events to celebrate the Frauenthal's anniversary.
|An Evening with Jeff Daniels

subset: commoncrawl


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MORGANTOWN (AP) - For Mark Thorne, a special education teacher at South Middle School, the work doesn't end when the bell rings at 2:20 p.m. As the sponsor of the school's bike club, Thorne has decided to run so that his students can ride.
To raise funds for the bike club, Thorne started a pledge drive as he prepares to run in the West Virginia Trilogy, Oct. 12-14, at Spruce Knob in Seneca Rocks Recreation Area, he said.
"The fundraiser is being done this way so that kids don't have to go door-to-door and raise money for their club," Thorne said. "I am going to run all three days of the trilogy, totaling 94.1 miles. I am asking for people to sponsor me, and all proceeds will go toward our bike club."
The first day of the Trilogy is a 50-kilometer run, Thorne said. The second day is 50 miles and the final day winds down with a 13.1-mile run.
"We cross over the highest point in the state right about daybreak. The fast runners finish the runs in the daylight, but I will finish with a headlamp on," Thorne said with a laugh.
There is no set pledge amount. People are welcome to pledge cents-per mile or single monetary donations, Thorne said.
Pledges were due before Monday, but donations can also be made after the race.
"All funds raised from the pledge drive will be used to purchase helmets, T-shirts and equipment needed to repair bikes," Thorne said. "We have had several people even donate bikes."
The South Middle School Bike Club, now in its third year, meets every two weeks rain or shine, and has 42 student members, officials said.
"We've grown in popularity. Several of the students don't have the opportunity to do other extracurricular activities," Thorne said.
Club member Shyan Weaver, 12, has used a wheelchair since she was a young child.
The sixth-grader rides a custom-made bike with three wheels and a hand crank that propels the bike instead of pedals, she said.
"Riding isn't hard for me. The hills can be tough sometimes, but it's not that big of a problem."
Weaver said being in the bike club has been a great experience for her.
"I have only had one ride so far, but I am looking forward to the next one."
Bike club members are scheduled to take their next ride on Thursday. They will ride from the school to Star City and back, Thorne said.


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America and Race: What would King do?
If Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. were alive today would his words be enough to save America from a pendingRead more
If Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. were alive today would his words be enough to save America from a pendingRead more
Calling back on the days of true grit and undeniable courage, President Barack Obama echoed the chambers of the hundredsRead more
50 years after the seminal event of the civil rights era, the work is still unfinished By Sherrilyn A. IfillRead more
It was a time of terror and trouble. In the years before and after the historic March on Washington forRead more
With the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous "I Have a Dream"Read more
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. fought for peace, stood for racial equality and brought hope to the notion that weRead more
The Republican Party today has a race neutral and culturally accommodating philosophy. What that means is that they pretend thatRead more
By Dr. Gail C. Christopher America's Wire WASHINGTON-In an often expressed dream for a better America, Dr. Martin Luther King,Read more
The San Diego Chargers and Chairman of the Board-President Dean Spanos-joined with the National Football League to provide a $1Read more
I don't see the timidity of a lamb when I think about slain civil rights icon Dr. Martin Luther KingRead more
Rev. Dr. William Barber II has been arrested many times. He's been hit up with death threats. Ugly verbal assaultsRead more
By Dennis J. Freeman Like many Americans, Dwayne and Maria Landry Ross embraced what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stoodRead more
New America Media, Commentary, Earl Ofari Hutchinson It is no surprise that the conservative political consultant Michael Reagan would tryRead more
By Dennis J. Freeman Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was not bigger than his famous "I Have a Dream" speech.Read more


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Top Definition
Pittsburguese for rubber bands.
The man at the store put a gumband on the customer's newly purchased poster.
dari Patrick Judge Kamis, 28 Oktober 2004
Trending Now
Can you define these popular missing words?
another word for "rubberbands"
used primarily by those from the Pittsburgh, PA area.
used primarily by those from the Pittsburgh, PA area.
Teacher: Ok, who's been flinging gumbands across the room?
Jimmy: Not me, teacher!
Jimmy: Not me, teacher!
dari KarmaGhost Selasa, 27 April 2004
a loop of thin rubber that is wrapped around objects to hold them together. Pittsburghese
"I have gumbands on my wrist to represent tha struggle."
dari DeAndre Kamis, 01 Desember 2005
A rubber band. A Pittsburghese.
Use a gum band to hold the straws together.
dari Lindsay Lou Rabu, 15 September 2010
What ignorant Pennsylvanians call rubber bands
Jimmy bought some gum bands so he could keep his nude pen collection organized.
dari Torch redstone Rabu, 19 Oktober 2011
What ignorant non-Pittsburghers call refer to as rubber bands.
Did you just shoot that gumband in my eye?
dari John Lease Rabu, 11 Februari 2004


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A county clerk has refused to release names and addresses of residents with pistol permits.
Putnam County Clerk Dennis Sant cites concerns about the safety of permit holders with protection orders as among the reasons for turning down a request from the Journal News. It wants information on who holds handgun permits in his county.
The move is backed by several local elected officials, including County Executive MaryEllen Odell. She calls the paper "reckless" and says families would be put at risk if the information was released.
But experts say the county will have a difficult time defending the refusal, because New York state law classifies the data as public.


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From the moment an author perceives his ultimate audience as international rather than national, the nature of his writing is bound to change. In particular one notes a tendency to remove obstacles to international comprehension. Writing in the 1960's, intensely engaged with his own culture and its complex politics, Hugo Claus apparently did not care that his novels would require a special effort on the reader's and above all the translator's part if they were to be understood outside his native Belgium. In sharp contrast, contemporary authors like the Norwegian Per Petterson, the Dutch Gerhard Baaker, or the Italian Alessandro Baricco, offer us works that require no such knowledge or effort, nor offer the rewards that such effort will bring.Parks sees a massive culture shift underway in the world of European literature similar to the switch from Latin to vernacular; European writers are beginning to look at success in their own language and their own countries as insufficient, and their gazes are set abroad. "Certainly, in Italy where I live, an author is only thought to have arrived when he is published in New York. To appreciate how much things have changed one only need reflect how little it would have dented the reputations of Zola or Verga had they not achieved immediate publication in London."
In addition to the lack of culturally specific detail, Parks sees a likely trend toward simpler, less idiomatic language that presents fewer problems for translators, and a greater reliance on what might be called the best practices of already internationally established stars:
the deployment of highly visible tropes immediately recognizable as "literary" and "imaginative," analogous to the wearisome lingua franca of special effects in contemporary cinema, and the foregrounding of a political sensibility that places the author among those "working for world peace." So the overstated fantasy devices of a Rushdie or a Pamuk always go hand in hand with a certain liberal position since, as Borges once remarked, most people have so little aesthetic sense they rely on other criteria to judge the works they read.I agree with Borges, and I agree that the fewer the Rushdie impersonators, the better, but I'm beginning to wonder which babies are being ejected with the bathwater. Even among the writers he's listed as among the vanguard of the new global novel (Petterson, Barrico, Baaker, Ishiguro) I have trouble recognizing this limp liberalism as all that pervasive, or a uniformity that is all that constrictive. There is a certain taciturnity in common between Petterson and Ishiguro (I don't know Barrico or Baaker) but I'm at a loss to attribute it solely to the desire to have international success; surely there is something very specific about both writers' sense of their characters' voices and the types of narratives they're interested in that is more personal (even idiosyncratic) than it is commercial or ambitious.
Secondly, I am left to wonder how Parks differentiates this "new global novel" from slightly older global novels: it would be very easy to read a work like Saramago's Blindness into this program of international pandering: it certainly seemed like it was written to facilitate fluid cultural translation. And aren't we told so frequently that the great modernist masterworks are among the most international of the century? Parks has written just a short blog post, so it may be unfair to expect a consideration of these larger contexts, but I wonder how much he is critiquing a specific marketing and compositional practice and how much he is complaining that he hasn't found many new novels he's liked recently. (Honestly, I'm inclined to believe that most general theories of literature derive from this quotidian problem. And when I hear "death of the novel," I think, "this guy's just fed up with his job," whether it's writing, editing, or composing 800-word reviews.)
Parks notes that his awareness of this shift comes from living in Europe, and I think it would be only fair to recognize that he's talking at most about a fraction (maybe a substantial fraction) of European writers. I suppose there are a number of Latin American and some African writers who could be read into this shift, but there are also a number of novels from these and other places which are fighting against this current, which do in fact attempt to render a sense of location or which at the very least are trying to engage a broad audience's ignorance. Junot Díaz's celebrated educational footnote to the second page of Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is only perhaps the most direct example, but there are a number of contemporary writers who at the very least begrudgingly accept the role of native informant and do their best to equip the reader with the necessary historical, political, and intellectual background for understanding the action. They are still very intent on writing novels deeply invested in local politics, history, and culture.
Lastly, I think it's hard to underestimate the extent to which genre fiction—mystery and science fiction in particular—has effected a change in the way writers around the world think about imaginatively coming to terms with local or national problems; while I don't want to write either genre off as allegory, the way that science fiction or detective novels might facilitate cultural translation because of their "highly visible tropes" is clearly one of their strengths and not a lack or a flaw. I haven't read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (which I kept expecting to come up in Parks's argument), but it's my understanding that there isn't so much a suppression of detail about contemporary Swedish society as it is made available to a global audience through the plot and through the internationalized conventions of the genre. Surely Stieg Larsson's wild success is more exemplary of a "new global novel" than Per Petterson or Alessandro Barrico.
I'm very skeptical that any desire to court international (and particularly American) success will ever be quite so unremittingly distortive and destructive to the novel—even to the European novel. And I am still more skeptical that it will ever become complete; while there may be a shift away from the pursuit of national prestige and toward international honors and sales, it is unlikely that national markets will wholly collapse, and some writers, unsuccessful on an international market, will inevitably turn back (or will never abandon) the local.


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Seniors Sophie Reecher and Janice Monakana and junior Jay-Ann Bravo-Harriott have been named captains of the University of Toledo women's basketball team for the 2016-17 season. The trio was selected based on votes by their teammates. Monakana, a
With seniors gone from secondary, younger players step up for Rockets.
Rockets return to action on road Sept. 30.
Add Notre Dame to list of enticing nonconference opponents.
Auburn comes back to win tournament held in Glass City.
Rockets will visit South Bend for contest.
Will mark the first time the two teams will meet on the gridiron.
Michigan stays put at No. 4 as Louisville jumps to No. 3.
Buckeyes rise, Wolverines unchanged.
Toledo tops 300 yards in air, on ground in rout of Fresno State


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Shoes, cash taken in armed robbery
Manheim Township store robbed
Published 12:15 PM EDT Jun 24, 2013
A man robbed Payless ShoeSource in Manheim Township, Lancaster County, Monday at gunpoint.
When the clerk rang up several pairs of shoes for him, he pulled out a handgun and demanded cash, police said.
He left the store with the shoes and cash.
Copyright 2013 by WGAL All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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timeEdition : My Work from Home Best Friend
I don't usually share a lot about my working life because it's different everyday and sometimes involves a baby in one arm. Before she was born, I would keep track of my hours each day in my mind. I usually worked somewhere between 4-8 hours a day and I tried to do that all in one session, maybe two. As soon as I was home from the hospital I tried to start working. Much harder than I thought it would be! Especially because any time you have a break you need to sleep. I found that I was working in 15 minute or 1/2 hr spurts and keeping track of that time in my head was driving me nuts! As if you need another thing to keep track of besides feedings, diaper changes, and naps!
Finally I got smart and looked for a time tracking tool. Something where I could press start and stop and feel like I was accurately accounting for time – not cheating myself or Shoplet. I have a Mac so I downloaded timeEdition for free. Best thing I ever did. I only work for Shoplet but if I worked for other companies, I could keep track of a bunch of different clients and be able to stop and start time if I was answering emails or working on something for someone else.
Any work from home + a baby tips you want to share?


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YOUNGSTOWN - Three years ago, Brandi Brown experienced more than her fair share of lopsided results on the losing end.
When Brown was a freshman, the Penguins lost seven games by 30 or more points during a 0-30 season. Having paid her dues then, the senior found Saturday's result all the more sweeter.
The Penguins thrashed Loyola at the Beeghly Center, 75-38, to record the team's second-straight win.
"These were the type of losses that I went through (my freshman) year," Brown said. "I'm happy to be on the other side. I realize why we're on that side - it's because we're working hard and because we're all focused and we want it.
"It's a good change."
It was a dominant performance by Youngstown State (13-5, 3-2 Horizon League), as the team led from start to finish.
The Penguins started off the game on a 22-2 run, including back-to-back 3-pointers by Brown and Liz Hornberger in the first minute-and-a-half. The rout was on before the Ramblers (6-12, 1-4) knew what hit them.
"I think this is the most complete league game that we've played since I've been here," Penguin coach Bob Bolden said. "Just a nice job on both sides of the floor."
"We were not consistent on Thursday (against Cleveland State) in our effort and in our intensity," Brown said. "It was nice to have everyone pay attention and focus and recognize what we did wrong so we could fix it today."
Despite being up 26 points going into the second half, the Penguins didn't let up the pressure.
Youngstown State continued to attack the rim and take shots from beyond the arc as late as the 2:12 mark, when Shar'Rae Davis drained a 3. Overall, the Penguins shot 50.9 percent from the field and went 11 of 30 on 3-pointers.
The Penguins ratcheted up on the defensive end as well. Despite struggling from the field in the first half, Loyola did much worse in the second half, recording a shooting percentage of 23.3 percent.
Overall, the Ramblers went 29.1 percent from the field, including 2-of-12 mark on 3s.
"I've been on their case about not being very tough, and it showed a lot of toughness to not letdown," Bolden said. "When you're up a lot at halftime and you come out and give the same effort in the second half and hold a team to 19 in both halves when you could have just packed in and mailed in the second half... I was real happy with the consistency of our effort."
Brown, who recorded her 13th double-double of the season with a game-high 24 points and 16 rebounds, wasn't the only player to make her mark on the offensive end.
Monica Touvelle drained four 3-pointers, which were her only field goals of the night, and Heidi Schlegel added 10 points.
"Brandi is our best player - there's no doubt about it - but we've always been about sharing the ball," Bolden said. "Tonight, Monica (Touvelle) got some good looks, Heidi (Schlegel) did a nice job of moving without the ball and got herself some easy buckets. I thought across the board offensively, we did a pretty nice job."
On top of leading the Penguins in scoring, Brown broke the Youngstown State record for most free throws made in a career, totaling 548 with her three made free throws in the game.
Brown said while it's nice to own a record, she's still looking at the five shots from the charity stripe that missed against Loyola more than getting the record.
"I think that breaking the record is cool, and I think that I can always do things to get better," Brown said. "Like missing those free throws, I should have made those."


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Police seek murder suspect
By John Joyce
Published in News on October 1, 2012 1:46 PM
Quinton Leon Swinson II
News-Argus/BOBBY WILLIAMS
Teasers nightclub on U.S. 117 South was the scene of a fatal shooting early Sunday. Jairus Mikeal Saunders, 18, was found shot to death. Police are looking for Quinton Leon Swinson II, 24, in connection with his death.
One man died early Sunday morning after a shooting inside Teasers nightclub at 1716 U.S. 117 South. Goldsboro police responded to a 911 call of shots fired at the club at 1:14 a.m. and, when they arrived on scene, discovered...
Please log in to see full story.


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Welcome to Glock Talk
Why should YOU join our Glock forum?
- Converse with other Glock Enthusiasts
- Learn about the latest hunting products
- Becoming a member is FREE and EASY
If you consider yourself a beginner or an avid shooter, the Glock Talk community is your place to discuss self defense, concealed carry, reloading, target shooting, and all things Glock.
Why are atheists wary of Christians/Christianity?
Discussion in 'Religious Issues' started by Kentak, Dec 4, 2012.
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Page 1 of 4


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ORLANDO, Fla. -- After all the weeks of uncertainty before their dismissals, it had to be somewhat cathartic for Mike DeBord and Ron English simply to address their impending unemployment after Tuesday's Capital One Bowl.
Their Michigan tenures became casualties of regime change. Uncertainty permeates the Wolverines program right now, not only with the transition from Lloyd Carr to incoming coach Rich Rodriguez, but all that accompanies it. Change may be good, and could be great, but for now, the clean break from four decades of Bo Schembechler links is stark.
The sense of disassociation by the outgoing seniors, who went from wired-in at Schembechler Hall, to consulting a spell-by-name directory, is palpable.
Not only is the head coach gone, but also all his assistants, save for running backs coach Fred Jackson.
And after all that sinks in, there's still Florida and Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow to ponder.
How the Wolverines could even get half-prepared for such a game is difficult to imagine, and considering the 10 1/2-point spread in Florida's favor, half-prepared is just how most people expect them to play.
So in their final days at Michigan, the top two assistants got a chance to tap-dance around the subject of their futures while dropping a few subtle clues, and represent all their fellow outgoing staffers in the first public appearance by U-M assistants since they arrived here Christmas night.
Many of the answers were predictable. Offensive coordinator DeBord and defensive coordinator English both insisted the Wolverines have practiced well this week, though English remembered being part of a similar setting when Dirk Koetter's lame-duck Arizona State staff coached through the 2002 Holiday Bowl.
Been here before
"It was absolutely the same situation, where we were playing in a bowl game, and guys were looking for jobs, and all that kind of stuff. Practices were hard because people were not focused," English recalled, although the 18-point underdog Sun Devils exceeded expectations before Kansas State rallied for a 34-27 victory.
English stressed that lame-duck Michigan staffers were not caught in the same trap, though literally minutes earlier, ESPN reported he had been hired as Louisville's defensive coordinator. He denied the report while acknowledging "interest" from Louisville.
DeBord admitted there were some distractions during the search to replace Carr, but the coaches and players were able to "focus in" after the hiring of Rodriguez, as if he could say otherwise, amid the dichotomy of preparing a team that is about to fire you, and spurning job talks with unemployment looming.
"There have been some people approached, some of our coaches, and things like that," said DeBord, an assistant in two stints at U-M, sandwiched around four years as Central Michigan's head coach. "But we haven't been actively out there pursuing things right now, and I think it shows the professionalism that this group has, that we want to do this for this team and Lloyd."
DeBord's on hold
DeBord said he won't make any decisions until he takes a few days to recharge after Tuesday's game.
For English, the considerations are a little different. He went from a potential head-coaching commodity to a 39-year-old defensive coordinator seeking a job in a tight market.
"One of the decisions I have to make is do I maybe want to take a lower-level I-A, or possibly I-AA job, to get head-coaching experience, because I think with the money universities are paying today in the major conferences, it's hard to hire a coordinator who does not have head-coaching experience," he said. "So that's kind of the way I look at it."
Louisville could look at it differently.
The future can be frightening to address, but Michigan has experienced assistants, and the uncertainty surrounding this Capital One Bowl will not follow their careers long.
Besides, after two weeks of debate about who's staying, who's transferring, who's hired, who's fired, the challenges of system change, who will benefit, and who no longer fills a role, the future is the healthiest thing left.


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Philadelphia School District officials said Thursday that an internal investigation concluded that allegations of state test-score cheating at two schools were unfounded.
But a state legislator wants to see the full reports on alleged testing improprieties at Roosevelt Middle School and FitzSimons High, and wants the state's education secretary to review the district's investigation.
State Rep. Michael McGeehan (D., Phila.) said he was prompted by The Inquirer's report of alleged test-tampering at the two schools, and by recent news of a cheating scandal in the Atlanta public schools, where authorities found systematic cheating, pressure on teachers to participate, and a "major failure of leadership" in the district, according to Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal.


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Cymarshall Law - Think Twice Freestyle
The Jersey emcee tackles some DJ Premier production.
The Jersey emcee tackles some DJ Premier production.
A touching tribute to the women of the world.
A touching tribute to the opposite sex.
New visuals off Cymar and Mr. Joeker's Hip Hop in the Soul 2. PREVIOUS: Cymarshall Law – One Million Miles Away (Video)
Now that I've gotten your attention, you can listen to the first leak from Reef and Grazz' You Asked For It tape.
New video off Cymarshall Law and Skit Slam's upcoming album, Everending Story (Nov. 15).
Directed by Cymar Simmons. No word on what the title of Cymar's upcoming project will be, but the above song/video will be featured on it...
Off Cymar's Hip Hop in the Soul Brother #1 project.
Off an upcoming DJ Premier tribute project. DOWNLOAD: CyMarshall Law - Hate
After a couple (2)dope leaks, Cymarshall releases his new album with Mr. Joeker handling the production. Tracklist/download link after the jump.
On the latest single from his upcoming album with Mr. Joeker (Hip Hop in the Soul, Oct 4), Cymarshal Law checks in on our world's issues, controversies and problems. DOWNLOAD: Cymarshall Law - 911 (prod. Mr. Joeker) PREVIOUS: Cymarshall Law – Great Ones (prod. Mr. Joeker)
Off V2's new project, TheUltraEmcee, available now.
CyMar pays homage to Stevie Wonder, Muhammad Ali and Michael Jordan on the latest single from his upcoming album with Mr. Joeker, Hip Hop in the Soul 2, dropping October 4th. DOWNLOAD: CyMarshall Law - Great Ones (prod. Mr. Joeker)


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How Not to Think About 'Managed Care'
Theodore R. Marmor
Yale School of Management
Jacob S. Hacker
Harvard University - Faculty of Arts and Sciences
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform, Vol. 32, No. 4, 1999
The premise of this article is that the concept "managed care," like many concepts now prominent in commentary about medical care finance and delivery, is incoherent and thus a barrier to useful analysis. "Managed care," we argue, is a confused assemblage of market sloganeering, aspirational rhetoric, and business school jargon. It presupposes answers to central questions about changes in modern medicine rather than helping to address those questions. To demonstrate this, we first discuss the context in which managed-care claims have arisen and outline the diverse trends to which the category is regularly and confusingly applied. We then suggest an alternative approach to characterizing recent changes in medical care and show how such an approach alters and deepens our understanding of recent economic and political developments. We conclude by arguing for more neutral categories to make sense of past or projected developments in methods of reimbursement and techniques of management.
Date posted: November 16, 1999
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You Are Here: Home » Research Funding » Funding Opportunities »
The NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research is a framework to enhance cooperative activities among the NIH Office of the Director and 15 NIH Institutes and Centers that support research on the nervous system. This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is released in affiliation with the Neuroscience Blueprint, with Institutes and Centers participating independently. This FOA solicits Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant applications that propose to continue the process of developing complex instrumentation, clinical research tools, or behavioral interventions and treatments. This FOA specifically invites applications for the competing renewal of previously funded Phase II SBIR grants to further develop the aforementioned types of technologies.


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ecb.co.uk News
2nd September 2013
Kent and Gloucestershire won the 'A Division' and 'B Division' Yorkshire Bank U17 County Cup titles at Kibworth Cricket Club, Leicestershire, on Sunday 1st September as they overcame Warwickshire and Hertfordshire in two high-quality finals.
ecb.co.uk News
30th August 2013
Durham won the ECB Under-17 County Championship thanks to a 115-run victory against Kent in the two-day final at Arundel.
ecb.co.uk News
24th August 2013
Surrey blew away Kent in the Yorkshire Bank U15 County Cup 'A Division' Final at Kibworth Cricket Club, Leicestershire.
ecb.co.uk News
21st May 2013
The England and Wales Cricket Board today unveiled a new and ambitious strategic plan which seeks to deliver successful England teams at all levels, to produce a vibrant domestic game as well as increasing and enthusing participation during the period 2014-17


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The New Orleans summer is full of cool diversions – thank goodness – and now we're at the midpoint of the season. To help you celebrate the city's steamiest time (and the downhill stretch) we built a list of fun things to do – wave pools, snowballs, Saints games and museum visits – and made sure that we had one for each of the season's 94 days.
August 5 is a good day to try a new snowball – a traditional mood changer for most New Orleanians. And, do try something new: the long, unbroken steambath of August demands a bit of variety.
Personally, we're inspired by the example of fellow reporter, Doug MacCash, who tried out some "extreme snowballs" for a series he wrote in June.
When you get home, check off the 46th day of Summer 2014.
Want more? Check out our daily editor's pick or visit our events calendar for the region.
Have a better idea? Please let us know in the comment stream: we're always looking for reader tips about fun things to do around greater New Orleans.
To get started you'll need a NOLA.com account. Sign up here to get an account and join the conversation. Learn how to better use our new comments section here, and feel free to upload your photos and tweets there.


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A bedroom can be an oasis of calm-your last stronghold of serenity in a busy life. You'll certainly want to set up your bedroom to meet your needs and comfort, but that doesn't mean style has to go. These shortcuts will help you organize your bedroom closet to control clutter without spending a bundle.
In a crowded bedroom, this is an all-too-frequent occurrence: You swing open your closet door and end up whacking a nearby piece of furniture. There's a quick fix for this problem. Replace your standard door with a bifold model. Opening and closing your closet will be smooth and collision-free. Plus, a bifold door is lightweight, and when open it allows access to the whole closet. Pick one up at any home center; it's easy to put it in yourself. All you need is a drill and a screwdriver for installing the floor plate and frame track. It's smooth entry from then on.
Take a cue from your grandmother's attic: Ease the space crunch in your closet by adding a few well-placed hooks. Install them on the end walls on either side of the clothes rod and along the front wall of the closet. Handbags, neckties, ball caps, and maybe a jacket or two-the storage possibilities are limitless with this idea from the past.
Old Dressers
Shave dollars and steps off a closet renovation by moving an old dresser into it, says fashion reporter Sharon Edelson from Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey. Make sure the dresser is short enough to fit neatly under clothing hanging from the rod. You'll find it's a great addition for storing extra blankets and bed linens, as well as kids' sports uniforms. If appearance counts, paint it to match the closet walls.
Flexibility is important in a bedroom closet, because as your lifestyle changes, so do the things you keep in your closet. Including movable-and removable-shelves ensures that you'll be prepared for new dimensions to your life, such as taking up the saxophone or starting a new collection. One system that earns high marks for versatility uses ready-made brackets that fit into notched metal tracks so that you can move shelves up or down as often as needed. Most home centers sell these brackets fairly inexpensively. You can pair the brackets with laminated shelves or spend less by making your own from standard lumber, such as 1-by-12s cut to length. (Lumberyards and home centers will cut boards for you at little or no cost.) Just be sure to fasten the metal tracks into wall studs, and they'll be able to handle the heaviest loads. Install shelves at just one end of your closet; you'll still have most of the space available for hanging clothing.


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Posted: 09 February 2012
Blog category: News
The Dog and Bear Hotel, Lenham, is preparing for a busy Olympic summer by refurbishing its guest rooms in a fresh, complementary style.
Brewer Shepherd Neame has redecorated and equipped the hotel's 24 rooms with new furniture and lighting, complementing the period charm of the 17th century pub with modern, comfortable accommodation.
For the first time, the Dog and Bear Hotel can offer a room fully-equipped for disabled visitors, including a wet room. Guests, who can now book online, can choose from one single room, one with a four poster bed, three family rooms and 19 doubles and twins.
Licensees Brian and Anne Hogg have run the Dog and Bear for eight years, having previously managed Shepherd Neame inns, including The Woolpack at Chilham and The Crown at Sarre, for a total of 15 years.
Anne said: "We are delighted with the refurbishment which keeps the historic character of the pub while bringing all our rooms and facilities up to the high standards our visitors require. We now offer better quality and value for money and we are looking forward to Easter and the Olympic summer as well as welcoming guests for weddings and other social events."
The pub occupies a prime position in Lenham's picturesque historic square. It is ideal for special occasions, conferences and business meetings, offering a function suite with its own bar and patio garden suitable for up to 50 guests.
The Dog and Bear Hotel, which dates back to 1602, was visited by Queen Anne in 1704 and her coat of arms is displayed above the door. Its rich history pervades the building, with its large open fire, oak beams and courtyard.
Shepherd Neame's distinctive Kentish cask ales are available, as well as a wide selection of wines from some of the world's leading independent estates.
Surrounded by beautiful countryside, yet close to the A20 and just 10 minutes from Junction 8 of the M20, the Dog and Bear Hotel makes the perfect base to visit Leeds Castle, and other Kent attractions.


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Tuscan Garlic Seasoned Italian Vegetables with Fettuccine
This is the perfect solution for creating a small, satisfying meal when time is short. Our quality Italian vegetables – green beans, tomatoes, zucchini, red peppers and onions – make a tasty impression, and the delicious garlic seasoning adds the finishing touch. It takes just a few minutes to prepare, and it's pure gourmet goodness. Impress your friends and wow your family with this one. But be prepared, they are sure to ask for the recipe.
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Papa Avenue roadwork to begin today
Work on the Papa Avenue Reconstruction project will begin today on Papa Avenue between Makalii Street and Hina Avenue in Kahului.
Work will occur from 8 a.m. to 3:30 daily.
The project involves reconstruction of the roadway between Puunene and Kaahumanu avenues, according to a notice from Maui Master Builders Inc.
Motorists are advised to expect delays and to use caution and follow all traffic controls and devices in the work zone.
For more information, call Maui Master Builders at 242-8180.
Martian 'life' topic of talk at UH center
Hiromu Nakagawa of Tohoku University in Japan will discuss "Remote Sensing of Martian 'Life':" Evidence from Haleakala" at 6:30 p.m. Friday at the Maikalani University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy's Advanced Technology Research Center in Pukalani.
Recent extensive exploration of Mars by the U.S. and Europe has provided new information about Mars and has changed people's perspectives on the planet, according to a news release. Mars, sometimes called "a frozen water planet," almost certainly experienced warm and wet climate in the past, scientists say. Discussed will be scientists' attempts to find evidence of life on Mars using dedicated instruments on Haleakala.
The center is located at 34 Ohia Ku St.
For more information, call 573-9500.
SHAKA Movement slated to host event
SHAKA Movement will hold a "GMO Initiative Volunteer Activation & Celebration" event at 6 p.m. Thursday at Sacred Earth Temple in Haiku.
The event will feature a vegetation potluck, presentation of the campaign by project leaders and dance music with DJ Diva Deva, according to a news release.
SHAKA (Sustainable Hawaiian Agriculture for Keiki and the Aina) Movement is leading a citizens' initiative for a moratorium on genetically modified organisms in Maui County that will appear on the Nov. 4 general election ballot.
Sacred Earth Temple is located at 4505 Hana Highway.


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All posts in Education
September 1, 2016 — By Barbara Chow
(Credit: EL Education)
The core qualities that drive success in the 21st century can be learned but not necessarily taught. That is the most critical insight in journalist Paul Tough's excellent book, "Helping Children Succeed," which came out this summer. It is an important conclusion, in part because it takes issue with more conventional school reform, which has tended to focus on "fixing" the students, the parents, and, most recently, the teachers inhabiting that environment.
Instead of concentrating on individual actors, Tough's book showcases the interventions – some school-based, many not – that have altered the very conditions in which children grow up. Building independence and self-efficacy through rigorous but meaningful academic work is key. Doing so, the research shows, has successfully lifted up children in poverty, imbuing in them the same sort of academic ambition and resilience that has traditionally been the province of higher income neighborhoods.
But as remarkable as these programs are, sadly many of them live on the margin of the K-12 and surrounding systems. They are niche programs removed from the mainstream and delivered to a lucky few recipients. Along with Tough, those of us who are grantmakers to these programs worry that this work, at least to date, is reaching too few students and at too slow a pace.
For his next book, I am hoping Tough will write "Helping Children Succeed at Scale." This is a difficult and complex proposition. But if I were to venture a guess, I would predict that Tough's insight about the conditions for student learning to be successful are also true for adults.
In other words, to construct powerful learning environments, teachers and school leaders also need to work under conditions in which they are challenged, autonomous and accountable. As it currently stands, teachers chafe under school constraints, districts complain about state mandates and states, in turn, about federal strictures and their inability to chart their own educational destinies in light of the detailed prescriptions of No Child Left Behind.
Fortunately, all of that is beginning to change. Or at least the possibility of change exists. No Child Left Behind is over. It has been replaced by new federal legislation with a much less evocative title – the Every Student Succeeds Act, which does not envision an entirely new education system.
But Every Student Succeeds Act does reduce some of the barriers, remove the more onerous and impractical provisions of No Child Left Behind, and maybe most importantly, it begins to restore a degree of agency to state education systems.
My hope is that this is the moment where the beautiful work of our grantees in crafting the sort of vibrant learning environments that Tough describes can begin to find purchase. Where states can create the system conditions for districts to do their best work and districts can enable schools to innovate for their students.
Several respected policy organizations, including the Council of Chief State School Officers, the Alliance for Excellent Education and the Learning Policy Institute, are focused on forging state education systems that encourage a broader view of student progress. States are beginning to recognize both academic excellence and the non-academic skills that Tough so eloquently describes. And they are focused on capacity building at every level so that the adults in the K-12 system have the resources, support and authority to be successful.
I don't think that any of us are naïve about how challenging this will be to bring about. Policy change can at best enable - but not create - the learning environments that Tough and others seek, particularly for our most disadvantaged students. This hard work will fall to schools, teachers and the students themselves.
That said, for a very long time, the education programs Tough so beautifully describes, like EL Education, have succeeded despite a myriad of hurdles from many quarters. They have kept "two sets of books" – holding themselves accountable for the deeper learning competencies that will help their children thrive and enduring a multiplicity of challenges that have very little to do with this.
Beginning to develop coherence and alignment between the work of great educators and the environments, in which they find themselves, is both an important next step and near-term opportunity.
Discuss »
May 17, 2016 — By Denis Udall
Students working on geometric designs at a New Tech Network school. (Photo Credit: Courtesy of New Tech Network)
While the word assessment in education conjures up images of testing, its Latin root, assidere, means "to sit beside." This raises a provocative question: In this era of high-stakes testing that's used to rank kids and schools, what if we reclaimed the word assessment and put it more authentically in the service of learning?
Going a step further, what if we connected educators who are passionate about deeper learning with a coalition of technical assistance providers and researchers, surround them with resources and tools so that they can develop new forms of assessment as a learning community of grantees?
Recently, I met with the Assessment for Learning Project, a group of leaders who are catalyzing innovative approaches to assessment that encourage observing, collecting and interpreting evidence of deeper learning. They are inspired by the belief that any form of assessment "worth its salt," as one teacher put it, "should also be an occasion for learning."
Each pilot project within this group aims to build a new type of formative assessment that teachers and students can use to get feedback during instruction, so that they can adjust their teaching and learning accordingly. This group is also developing a series of "proof points" that would allow these assessments to scale beyond particular local contexts, geographies or school systems.
What would that look like in practice? Here are a few things being tried by the Assessment for Learning Project leaders.
The Center for Collaborative Education in Boston is working with Rhode Island teachers to design and implement complex, deeper learning tasks that require students to demonstrate mastery of key skills.
In contrast to a fill-in-the-bubble-sheet test, these tasks ask students to engage in real-world work like carrying out an investigation or constructing an argument based on primary sources. The most exciting part of this project is how participating teachers are trained to use the new assessments. Designed to "walk the talk" of competency-based assessment, the project's teachers must first demonstrate competencies in three stacks of "micro-credentials" and they must present those skills to their peers.
Two Rivers School in Washington, D.C., students embark upon two expeditions each year. Their teachers guide them in a project-based learning experience that challenges students to interact with science or social studies curricula in non-traditional and exciting ways.
For example, second-graders learn about the physics of flight by exploring gravity, and then make recommendations to the Smithsonian National Air and Space museum for a child-friendly exhibit. Fifth-graders learn about American history by studying protests, and then draft recommendations for the D.C. public charter school community in response to funding concerns. Two Rivers is developing performance assessments to better understand how and if students are able to transfer the skills and habits they use in these learning expeditions to new tasks.
The California Performance Assessment Collaborative is launching an official state pilot where schools and districts develop, test, and share learning about high-quality graduation performance assessments that can serve as a viable alternative to California's high school exit exam (a now suspended test of basic skills.) Learning within the pilot will occur on three levels:
At Envision Schools, for example, students assemble a portfolio of their best work, which they must defend, dissertation-style, in front of an audience of educators, peers, and community members. Students must present a defense of their work at the end of 10th grade, and, for seniors, passing the college success portfolio defense is a graduation requirement.
The center of gravity of Assessment for Learning Project is its learning agenda, a set of core questions that the grantees hope will galvanize the broader field into rethinking the role of assessment. These are questions such as: "What assessment practices most effectively empower students to own and advance their learning?" and "How can we most effectively build educator capacity to gather, interpret, and use evidence of student learning to enhance instruction?"
Over the next two years, the schools, districts and nonprofits in Assessment for Learning Project will be using these and other guiding questions to catalyze an ongoing conversation – both in their schools and with their fellow grantees - on how we can #rethinkassessment. Throughout the process, they will be supported by assessment experts, in-person meetings, and a digital hub where they can share challenges and get real-time feedback from their peers.
Assessment for Learning Project is led by the Center for Innovation in Education (CIE) at the University of Kentucky in partnership with Next Generation Learning Challenges (NGLC) at EDUCAUSE and is co-funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
February 5, 2016 — By Jacqueline Nader
Deeper Learning. Linked Learning. Blended Learning. Personalized Learning. Student-centered Learning. Project-based learning. Social and emotional learning. And the list goes on (and on). There are literally hundreds of education initiatives—and an equal number of philanthropic strategies—designed to improve our education system. In my time as fellow at the Hewlett Foundation, I have come to realize the importance of putting equity first, ahead of any other goal or initiative. For all of us who have devoted our careers to serving children, our greatest responsibility is to create a world in which every child, regardless of her race, income, or ZIP code, has the same chance to attend excellent schools, graduate from college, and fulfill her potential.
Why focus on equity? One graph tells the story:
(Image Credit: Pell Institute, "Indicators of Higher Education Equity in the United States")
The gap in college attainment by income group is growing. College attainment for children from the poorest families has barely risen—from an abominable 6% to a still unconscionable 9%—in 45 years. As you might imagine, the income achievement gap doesn't begin in college, but exists at every level of the education system: from before kindergarten through high school. This is, or ought to be, intolerable. The United States is one of the most prosperous, most innovative countries in the world, yet we are denying a good education to whole groups of children based on their income and race. Nelson Mandela made the point eloquently: "There can be no contentment for any of us when there are children, millions of children, who do not receive an education that provides them with dignity and honor and allows them to live their lives to the full."
The achievement gap is terrible enough at the level of the individual. For the one in five children in the United States who lives in poverty, college—the clearest path to a brighter future—is all but unattainable. But the achievement gap is also destructive to our society as a whole. Educational inequity erodes our deeply held American values: equality of opportunity, social mobility, the American dream. We have to honor our belief that every child has a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness—no matter the status of her parents.
An equitable education system, which provides equal opportunities to students with the highest needs, is a necessary component to addressing rampant income inequality, now at its highest level since 1928. And address it we must. Rampant inequality contributes to a whole host of social problems. It's part of the reason the United States has the highest infant mortality, maternal death, and prison population rate of any developed country (and very nearly the highest homicide rate). Inequality hampers economic growth and threatens democracy.
So if education is critical to creating social mobility and reducing income inequality, how can we make our school system the 'great equalizer'? How can we finally close the achievement gap?
Those of us working in education have to prioritize equity as our explicit ultimate goal. We have to design strategies that directly focus on closing the achievement gap—or the gap will never close. It won't be enough to shape our missions, programs, and policies around improving education for 'all students' - many reforms over the last few decades have done that, but the achievement gap actually grew. Why?
Those reforms failed to reverse the structural causes of equity: the uneven distribution of resources that systemically disadvantages certain groups of students. Instead of receiving extra funding, schools and districts serving the poorest students typically receive the least funding. Even more important than funding is teaching. According to the Education Trust-West (a prominent research and advocacy group), low-income students and students of color are less likely to be taught by top teachers. Decades after Brown v. Board of Education, school segregation is, in many places, still a reality.
Optimistically, the last few years have produced new opportunities. The Equity and Excellence Commission drew additional attention to the achievement gap. Federal programs like the Investing in Innovation Fund (i3) and policies like the Every Student Succeeds Act and California's Local Control Funding Formula make it possible for states and districts to direct more resources to the students who need it most—if they so choose.
We have a lot more to do. To close gaps, we must make our best resources—teachers, funding, and programs proven to support student learning—available to underserved students. We have to ensure that our best ideas directly address the needs of low-income students, English language learners, foster youth, and students of color. And we have to respond to what communities, students, and teachers in underserved areas are asking for—whether that fits within our preconceived strategies or not.
So, I encourage those of us who care deeply about every child's future to reflect on our organizations' strategies, programs, and policies and ask ourselves one simple question: will they help close the achievement gap? If not, redesign them. We owe it to every child, and our country as a whole, to put equity first.
January 19, 2016 — By Larry Kramer
2015 was a great year for people who believe that openness can drive change. It was a year in which governments around the world, including many here in the United States, embraced new policies requiring open licenses for work they fund. Major private funders did the same, like Gates and Ford (in addition to us), starting a trend that should bring open licensing to whole new fields of study. Best of all, 2015 was the year we began to see open educational resources (OER) move from eccentric curiosity to mainstream adoption.
At the root, or maybe I should say the heart, of these successes lies the work of Creative Commons. The organization's open licenses—now used in connection with more than a billion works—provide the legal underpinning for sharing. More important, its leadership has been pivotal in shaping a new understanding of the importance and feasibility of making art and research and all manner of information easily accessible and useable.
When Creative Commons was founded, in 2001, the notion that content creators would routinely allow others to use, modify, and even commercialize their work seemed far-fetched. Today, that idea is nearly conventional wisdom—and on the way to becoming conventional practice. The journey has at times been arduous, but open licenses, and the idea of openness more broadly, have succeeded due in large part to the tireless efforts of the people at Creative Commons.
The Hewlett Foundation was an early supporter of Creative Commons, and we have watched its growing influence with pride and admiration. It has been a privilege to support this vital work, and we are pleased to continue that support with a new grant of $10 million in unrestricted general operating support—the largest gift we have made to the organization.
Our hope is to give the people at Creative Commons some room to breathe: an opportunity to think and try new things—to create—without having to curtail or constrain their ongoing work. Creative Commons is the chief steward of a large and growing movement for openness, a movement to make knowledge more freely available, to foster sharing and collaboration, and to spur advances and improvements that make the world a better place for everyone.
We can't wait to see what they do next.
December 10, 2015 — By Christopher Shearer and Barbara Chow
Today, President Obama signed into law the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which replaces the controversial No Child Left Behind (NCLB). The bipartisan passage of ESSA propels the nation into a significant pendulum swing that will shift us away from what some characterized as the long arm of the flawed NCLB accountability system over to what others fear might become a Wild West of state control. Perhaps the most seismic result of the new law will be state revisions of their accountability systems. And, given the demands of the global economy and modern civic life, getting accountability innovation right is a major, and timely, issue—states must seize the chance to ensure all kids get beyond the "3 Rs" to acquire the more robust knowledge, skills, and learning mindsets they'll need to succeed.
Accountability and innovation are two words that sound like polar opposites. Accountability has a sort of weightiness; it is a word that, at its best, conveys responsibility but, at its worst, conveys rote compliance and guilt. Innovation, in contrast, seems unchecked by convention, buoyant—but also risks encouraging "anything goes" for the sake of experimentation. Pairing these words—and the messages they invoke—in the context of education policy might be surprising. But this is precisely what we at the Hewlett Foundation are striving for as we look to the future under ESSA.
States that have felt constrained by federal policy will now be able to experiment to sort out for themselves what they want their education systems to produce. Some folks fear that we return to an era without an agreed-upon "floor" of expectations for outcomes and progress—or that we'll allow backsliding to a time when achievement for all students was not an important-enough part of the discussion. The challenge—and opportunity—facing state leaders at this juncture is how to combine the best of what we mean by "accountability" with the best of what we mean by "innovation" to create new systems and supports that more successfully reinforce and act on what they value.
Much can be learned through such a merger, particularly about how an education system can support innovation while holding itself accountable for even better, more equitable outcomes—shifting from a static compliance model toward capacity building and continuous improvement. In this moment of change, we are hopeful states will lead towards a vision of schooling that supports all of the things we know about what children need to succeed. This vision should include rigorous academic achievement but also vital interpersonal and intrapersonal competencies: what we refer to together as the "deeper learning" outcomes that students must master to be successful in the global economy and today's civic life.
How can newly-empowered leaders unite innovation and accountability as the pendulum swings their way? Inspired by our nonprofit partners—from state education agencies and policy design experts to researchers and educators—we offer the following specific actions that states can take:
Align Accountability Goals with College, Career, and Civic Readiness—Including Deeper Learning Outcomes: As states advance real student readiness as the goal of their education systems, they should take the step to define "readiness" as deeper learning and make this the "north star" goal for their accountability systems, including a full range of knowledge, skills, and dispositions. Setting clearly-articulated and overarching definitions of student success now is important to guide where states set the bar for school accountability—both in terms of student performance on the current crop of new assessments and on those indicators that will develop over time as we improve the achievement measures for such hard-to-test areas as collaboration and social and emotional learning.
Include Multiple Measures for Accountability: If states stipulate that they care about a range of outcomes, they should take this opportunity to adopt multiple measures of student learning. High-quality summative assessments of student learning—like those PARCC and Smarter Balanced have created—remain an essential component. But they need to be complemented with measures that reflect the full breadth and depth of whether students are ready for college, career, and citizenship—providing information on a range of cognitive, interpersonal, and intrapersonal knowledge and skills including rigorous academic content, critical thinking and problem solving, collaboration and teamwork, expert written and oral communication, learning how to learn, and development of an academic/learning mindset. Notably, states should include performance assessments that better measure and advance student application of knowledge and higher-order skills. States could also get beyond lip service to local capacity by making room for local assessments.
Report a Data Dashboard to Drive Improvement: States should use a dashboard system—a limited number of important indicator metrics and "warning lights" for critical aspects of accountability—to report and interpret progress on these multiple measures rather than only collapsing them into a single score or performance index. As a part of this disaggregated information on student outcomes, states could further empower ongoing action for school improvement by considering inclusion of equitable resources, information on opportunities to learn, and data on the climate for learning, among others.
These three reform areas will only succeed in practice if states pursue them through a policy of continuous improvement, committing fully to equity, to evaluating their success or failure, and intentionally fostering local innovation with an eye toward fairly scaling up effective improvements. States must ensure that revised designs do not simply shift state and local systems from one static "box" of accountability to another unadaptable box—especially as new measures of currently "hard to measure" student outcomes are developed. They should embrace ongoing innovation tied to clearly-articulated goals rather than to innovation for its own sake. Finally, new accountability systems should be connected to a real, statewide system of supports designed to help all schools improve—with a particular focus on mechanisms to enhance the professional capacity and learning of educators themselves.
Passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act will kick off a time of momentous change. As state leaders combine accountability and innovation, they must remember that schooling serves all students and provides a public good. Indeed, accountability systems were first developed precisely to ensure that the most at-risk children receive the supports they need and that their achievement is transparently reported. We must not lose this goal. As states implement improved accountability models, which make new room for a richer and more demanding array of student outcomes, we can and should keep equity top of mind in both design and implementation.
We believe that these key reforms—basing accountability on a clearer definition of desired outcomes, adopting multiple measures of student achievement on these outcomes, and using dashboard reporting—are critical to success in this transitional moment. States can and should combine innovation and accountability by advancing the deeper learning competencies necessary for all students to be successful in college, career, and life.
December 9, 2015 — By Larry Kramer
One of the best things about working in philanthropy is the chance to get in on the ground floor of great ideas. Even better is watching those ideas grow into something unanticipated, something bigger and better than anyone foresaw or expected at the outset.
Such has definitely been our experience with Open Education Resources (OER)—a field launched at MIT in 2001 with a joint grant from the Hewlett and Mellon foundations. That grant funded MIT's OpenCourseWare initiative, which made materials from the university's classes freely available to people around the globe. It was a daring, wonderful, ambitious idea for making knowledge that until then had been confined to campus available to a literal world of people who otherwise could never have dreamed of accessing it. The sheer audacity of the vision energized us: so much that we launched a new grantmaking strategy to grow and spread this new idea. Yet even so, I doubt anyone at the time envisaged the robust, burgeoning field that OER has become a decade and a half later.
That field still includes MIT's vibrant OpenCourseWare, which today averages a million visits each month. But it also includes a host of other organizations the Hewlett Foundation has been privileged to support and, in many cases, to help launch—such as Creative Commons, whose open licenses now ease access to over a billion pieces of content that otherwise would be locked down tight; or OpenStax at Rice University, whose free and open textbooks are used, reused, and repurposed in more than 1,000 college courses around the world. More gratifying still is how far the OER field has grown and matured beyond what we at the Hewlett Foundation support. Other funders have joined, (though still too few given the field's needs and opportunities), and public agencies have begun stepping up as well, like South Africa, whose government has distributed open textbooks to every public high school in the country. A study we recently commissioned from the Boston Consulting Group indicates that approximately ten percent of K-12 educators in the United States now use OER as a primary resource.
OER didn't grow from a single experimental grant to a global movement overnight. It developed gradually, as a small but steadily increasing cohort of farsighted educators came to see its benefits, which are broader and more profound than many people realize. After all, OER can do much more than just reduce costs, though certainly it does that. Openly licensed materials empower teachers: unleashing their creativity by enabling them to customize courses in ways that deepen both their own engagement and that of their students. And the benefits for students are even greater. Clearly, open resources increase students' access to knowledge, just as the recipients of that first grant at MIT hoped they would, but there is growing evidence that effective use of OER also improves critical student outcomes—everything from test scores to college enrollment rates. "No brainers" are incredibly rare in education, where strongly held, widely disparate values all-too-often stymie potential reforms. Well, OER is a no brainer.
Still, that ten percent of K-12 educators are using OER means 90 percent still are not. Can we change that? Can OER become the materials of choice for mainstream teachers? Just a few years ago, when OER was still in its infancy, such a question would have seemed ludicrous. Even now, the idea that OER could be the norm seems crazily ambitious. But research in other domains has shown that innovations often tip from early adopters to mainstream use once they hit 15 to 20 percent of market share—a level of use that seems sufficiently widespread to get all but the stodgiest holdouts to consider trying something new. We are, in other words, already close. Our refreshed grantmaking strategy, which we release today, is designed to reach that next, critical tranche of potential converts. It will do so by focusing on particular problems and challenges for which OER provides an especially promising solution—from the out-of-control rise in the cost of textbooks to the provision of educational materials in the developing world. We will, at the same time, continue to support the sort of robust infrastructure needed for OER to facilitate still more innovations in educational practice.
The benefits of using OER in the classroom are too great to be embraced by only a forward-thinking few. They should be shared with everyone.
September 16, 2015 — By TJ Bliss and Barbara Chow
Textbooks aren't new or novel, and they certainly don't represent the cutting edge of the Open Educational Resources (OER) movement that the Hewlett Foundation has long supported. But it's precisely because of the way they are deeply embedded in the education system that they have the potential to shift OER from the exception to the default in school districts and colleges across the United States. And make no mistake: OER is poised for widespread adoption, with research showing that nearly 10% of K-12 teachers and over 10% of higher education faculty regularly use OER in some form. That realization, which heavily informed the strategic planning process we began when TJ Bliss and Dana Schmidt came on board as program officers for OER, formed the basis of our revised strategy for OER. This strategy will focus on supporting the development and adoption of open textbooks over the next three to five years while also maintaining a robust infrastructure for the OER field until it becomes self-sustaining. We've gotten enough questions about this decision from grantees and colleagues that we thought it was worth explaining in more detail with this blog post.
Three big trends are driving our push for open textbooks. First, millions of college students today are crushed by debt brought about by the high cost of education. Open textbooks can play an important role in solving this problem (particularly for community college students, where textbook costs can be as much as 40% of the total cost of a student's education) by reducing the costs of instructional materials. Many current digital support tools (like learning management systems and assessment platforms) are bundled with printed texts that students can't afford, but the vast majority of educators and students still need the content from those textbooks. At the same time, as a result of years of investment by private foundations and government, a supply of less expensive, high-quality open materials does exist, and they are more flexible than proprietary textbooks and more easily updated. They're better for students, and more empowering for faculty.
Second, while new digital support tools are rapidly appearing in the market, educational technology depends on quality content to meet curricular requirements. The deployment of open content in these new tools can lower overall development costs, which can then speed time to market and keep costs low for students. Supporting the development of open textbooks is a key requirement to achieving the digital promise of tomorrow.
Third, schools with the largest populations of disadvantaged students have neither the infrastructure nor the funds to take advantage of the latest education technology. These schools still purchase textbooks and are likely to do so for many years to come. Open textbooks, while looking toward the future, meet the needs these schools and students have today.
Indeed, there is a desperate need for open textbooks. In the K–12 world, the gap between textbooks aligned with high standards and what is actually available has widened considerably. For example, EdReports, a new organization that we have supported to serve as a type of Consumer Reports for education, has documented a significant lack of alignment between the most-used math textbooks and the new Common Core State Standards they are supposed to cover. In community colleges, textbooks make up to 30 percent of the costs of a student's education. In many cases textbooks are so expensive that students simply forego their purchase, diminishing their educational experience and chances of success.
By contrast, openly licensed materials are hitting the mark and filling a market niche. EngageNY has developed openly licensed educational materials that have been vetted for quality by the authors of the Common Core State Standards. These resources have been downloaded over 24 million times and teachers around the country have independently cited them as providing valuable support in the shift to new standards. Similarly, OpenStax College, which creates openly licensed textbooks for college courses with the highest enrollment, has already experienced significant market penetration, achieving mainstream use in 20 percent of all Title IV institutions despite virtually no marketing.
So open textbooks are clearly good for the education system as a whole, but is this the best focus for OER? After all, improvements in materials alone will be much less effective without better and more open pedagogy, and textbooks are fairly U.S.-centric while OER is a global movement. We recognize that there are many other cutting edge ways in which OER could contribute to solving serious problems in the education world. So why continue supporting open textbooks when it is very possible that "the textbook" will not be the primary form of content delivery in the digital future?
Looking at this question from the vantage of the OER movement, we believe that it is precisely because textbooks are not new or novel that they carry within them the seeds of change that could help OER cross the innovation chasm and jumpstart widespread mainstream adoption—moving solidly into "the wood" in the pencil metaphor of school technology integration pictured above. In K–12, states and districts allocate funds to purchase textbooks, while in higher education, faculty assign textbooks for students to buy. In our home state of California, textbooks serve a critical articulation function between community colleges and four-year colleges. Textbooks also serve as a means of fulfilling K–12 educational equity requirements as dictated by the landmark Williams settlement. In other words, textbooks are solidly within the workflow of the education system. And focusing on something that offers a solution to problems that are widely recognized within the education system itself represents the best opportunity for mainstream adoption of OER.
As we've considered the range of options where OER could make a meaningful difference, we've been weighing four core areas:
In our view, a focus on open textbooks in the near-term meets all of these criteria. The benefits are widespread. For example, a recent U.S. PIRG report estimates that if every full-time undergraduate student had just one of their traditional textbooks replaced with an open textbook each year, it could save students nationally almost $1.5 billion in textbook costs.
Evidence shows that OER can reduce costs while maintaining education quality. A rigorous study published in Education Researcher last year found that students who used open science textbooks in Utah high schools performed better than students using proprietary science textbooks. Amazingly, the open textbooks cost about $5 per student while the proprietary textbooks cost $75 per student, which demonstrates remarkable learning outcomes per dollar. Research on OER in higher education is also fairly consistent in finding that OER decreases costs without negatively impacting learning. For more information on the mounting evidence, see the "Review Project" by the Open Education Group, which provides a summary of all known empirical research on the impacts of OER adoption, or check out the "OER Evidence Report" recently published by the OER Research Hub.
Philanthropy can play a catalytic role in pushing OER as a solution to the real problems the education system is experiencing today. Given the growing availability of OER supply, the costs of advancing open textbooks is relatively small as it consists of making policy efforts, filling gaps in supply, marketing, and building awareness.
We recognize that there is a long list of other areas related to OER where our funding could make a significant contribution. These are all within our sights. But for the next few years, we believe open textbooks represent the greatest promise for mainstream adoption of OER.
June 26, 2015 — By Heath Wickline
Denise Smith Amos, writing for Jacksonville.com, on the decision by the Duval County Public Schools Board—the district is the sixth largest in Florida and the twenty-second largest in the United States—to adopt the EngageNY open educational resources (OER) curriculum for its elementary schools:
Instead of hardback textbooks, Duval's elementary students will learn math and reading from sheets of paper and other materials downloaded from an online website.
A divided Duval School Board voted last week to adopt the free online program called EngageNY as its main curriculum for elementary reading and math next year, instead of buying new textbooks. The district expects to print out much of the materials.
It's an unusual step for a major urban district, but it is becoming more common as districts across the country scramble to find good materials that align with tougher academic standards in the national Common Core and Florida's similar college-ready guidelines.
By downloading materials instead of purchasing textbooks, Duval will save $10 million over two years, he said, while gaining greater assurance that students can meet Florida's standards.
Instead of hardback textbooks, Duval's elementary students will learn math and reading from sheets of paper and other materials downloaded from an online website.
A divided Duval School Board voted last week to adopt the free online program called EngageNY as its main curriculum for elementary reading and math next year, instead of buying new textbooks. The district expects to print out much of the materials.
It's an unusual step for a major urban district, but it is becoming more common as districts across the country scramble to find good materials that align with tougher academic standards in the national Common Core and Florida's similar college-ready guidelines.
By downloading materials instead of purchasing textbooks, Duval will save $10 million over two years, he said, while gaining greater assurance that students can meet Florida's standards.
The Hewlett Foundation supported the development of the EngangeNY materials through a series of grants to the University of the State of New York Regents Research Fund.
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May 12, 2015 — By Callie Riley
Callie Riley is associate director for state engagement and outreach at PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers). The Hewlett Foundation is supporting PARCC, along with the Council of Chief State School Officers and CoreSpring, in the creation of the Item Writers Algebra Readiness competition.
In my former life as a classroom teacher and, more recently, working with teachers and local leaders at PARCC—a consortium of states working together on assessments to measure whether students are on track to be successful in college and their careers—I've seen first-hand that great teaching tools can lead to more than just a shift in the classroom. They can lead to truly engaging conversations among peers, and more importantly, a collective shift in thinking. Educators have collaborated to develop a number of great tools over the past few years, such as a series of Teaching Channel videos that focus on connecting good instruction and good assessment. But there's still been an unanswered call for a user-friendly tool that will allow teachers to connect with one another, talk about best practices, and develop tasks aligned to the Common Core State Standards that can be used to support student learning.
That connection between instruction and assessment is embodied in item writing and task development—creating the building blocks of student assessment—and it's no mean feat. Normally a job for those employed with assessment companies because of the immense amount of time needed to ensure high quality, teachers have begun to get more involved, with the goal of aligning what kids see on their state tests with the kind of tasks they use in their classrooms. Item writing includes the process of taking a standard or many standards—what a student is supposed to be learning in her classroom—and translating those standards into tasks that will allow the student to demonstrate what she knows.
Enter the Item Writers Algebra Readiness competition. This competition is the first in a series that will focus on innovative, open-source item development for everyday use in classrooms. The competition was developed with the guidance of educators who are currently in the classroom, and will provide an interactive platform for participants to communicate with one another during the development process.
Educators around the country will develop assessment items and can not only provide feedback, advice, and expertise to one another, but also get feedback from a wide range of experts in the field. The goal of the project is to create great collections of items that can be used by educators in the field to aid with formative assessment, and also identify great educators who know the standards well and are able to translate them into complex and thoughtful tasks for students. Ultimately, the competition will also create a community of learners who are engaged in the process of changing the lives of students. And the best task sets will be available to all educators as open education resources available on the PARCC Partnership Resource Center—an online library of interactive tools and resources for educators hosted by the PARCC consortium—set to debut later this year.
Registration is open through this Sunday, May 17. If you are a math-savvy teacher, please join us and become a part of this growing community of practitioners. And engage in a little friendly competition while you're at it!
May 5, 2015 — By Jacqueline Nader
True voice is unlimited power: detail from student work at High Tech Middle School in San Diego. (Photo Credit: Jacqueline Nader/ Hewlett Foundation)
These days, teachers are often treated as both the cause of all our problems and their solution, responsible for everything from alleviating poverty to the grades on an individual student's report card. If you're a parent who has seen your child thrive because of one special teacher—or if you can remember what your favorite teacher meant to you when you were growing up—you'll know what I mean when I say that teachers have incredible power. They can ignite in their students a love of learning, help them to believe in themselves, and even make them feel safe and loved. They are the heart and soul of our schools.
At the same time, if you read the news, you'll know that teachers are criticized constantly for the shortcomings of our education system and the less-than-perfect test scores of our students. Even if we set aside the articles that paint teachers in the worst light, we still can't escape the many headlines about how we need to "build better teachers" or teach teachers how to do things they already strive to do every day—things like instilling in their students a sense of their own self-worth or teaching them values like teamwork and perseverance.
Working at a foundation, it's easy to fall into a constant search for the right programs to 'fix the problem.' If you think that teachers aren't motivated enough, the question becomes 'how do we incentivize them?' If you think they don't know enough, the question is 'how do we train them?' If you think they're not working hard enough, the question is 'how do we evaluate them and hold them accountable?'
What if they don't lack motivation, or knowledge, or high stakes? What if they lack time? What if they lack voice?
One of my good friends, a teacher in Queens, NY, said something to me during her first year of teaching that I'll never forget, because it was so clear how responsible she felt for every student in her class. "What if I can't teach them 5th grade math?" she said. "If I don't teach it to them, no one will. And they won't be able to learn 6th grade math or high school math, because the concepts build over time. It will be my fault that they can't do math." It didn't matter to her that many of her students were many grade levels behind before they ever got to her class. It was her job to help them succeed. She felt the stakes keenly, and didn't lack for motivation, or for knowledge of how to be a good teacher.
What she did lack, in that first year, was time—she worked twelve-hour days, and it wasn't enough. And she lacked voice—her principal was rarely available to meet with her; she wasn't assigned a mentor when she began the year; and the teachers at her school didn't interact much with each other. It was very hard for her to grow as a teacher that year, because she had such little support.
That's just one story, of course, but, over the last few months, I have had the honor to have long conversations with several teachers, and I keep hearing the same things. They often work late into the night, preparing lessons and trying to find the materials that will set off light bulbs in their students' heads. They're constantly thinking of ways to improve their craft. I have never met a teacher that didn't care about his students or that wasn't seeking out new ways to help them learn. There are always exceptions, of course, but the vast majority of teachers are working hard to teach their students not only subject matter, but also creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, citizenship…and the list goes on.
But they're doing so with varying degrees of support and, often, very little voice. They talk about needing more time with mentors, principals, and fellow teachers to co-develop lessons and talk through challenges or new ideas. They aren't usually able to shape their own professional development or asked what might be most helpful before being shuffled through required trainings or communities of practice.
There are, of course, some schools, districts, and organizations that are striving to offer teachers the support and voice that they need. One organization, in particular, comes to mind: Gooru—one of our grantees and a strong partner. Their website has 16 million educational resources that teachers can compile into "collections" and powerful analytic tools to track student progress, both of which are impressive. But the way they operate is what I think makes them truly noteworthy.
The Founder and CEO of Gooru, Prasad Ram (aka Pram), used to work at Google as an engineer—he has never been a classroom teacher. For him, that lack of personal experience is a constant reminder to stay humble. That means asking teachers what they need, instead of telling them what to do.
Gooru's tools give teachers more time with their students, and students more time with materials that motivate them. One teacher explained to me that, while her students are working through a Gooru collection, she can pull a small group of high- or low-performing students aside to personalize their lesson. Another teacher explained that, for one day a week, her students use Gooru to go deeper into a particular subject to bring the basic concepts in their textbooks to life.
More powerful still, Gooru gives teachers voice. Pram didn't just build a website and roll it out. Instead, he hosts 'design jam sessions,' where he asks teachers what they envision for these tools. Many of them have a direct line to one of his engineers, so they can ask for new features and functions, and then they are actually told whether those features can be developed and how long it will take. The Gooru website is constantly evolving to meet the changing needs of teachers. As Pram puts it, it is "created by teachers, built by engineers."
The real beauty of Gooru, at least for me, is it's philosophy: that teachers are intrinsically motivated and already know what it is they need to do their best. That's a point of view that many of us interested in education reform would do well to hear.
None of this is to say that teacher training, incentives, and evaluation methods don't matter—they do. It's just a reminder that, whenever a school or an organization is developing a new tool or training or incentive (or whenever a foundation is funding a new program, for that matter), we have a lot to learn from the teachers themselves. It's time we start to listen more closely to what teachers are asking for loud and clear—starting with support, time, and, most importantly, voice.