Astronaut Armstrong recalls moon landing

CNN.com
July 20, 2009
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/07/20/space.apollo.anniversary/index.html?iref=newssearch

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The first man on the moon marked the 40th anniversary of his historic achievement with characteristic understatement Monday, calling the program that put him on the lunar surface "a good thing to do."

Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong joined crewmates Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin at the National Air and Space Museum, capping a day of commemorations that included a stop at the White House. During brief remarks at the museum, he said the mission was the climax of a "staggeringly complex" endeavor that "required the very best in creativity, determination and perseverance that could be assembled in the American workplace."

"Those successes were very impressive 40 years ago, but they were not miraculous," Armstrong said. "They were the result of the imagination and inventive minds of the people in the Apollo project since its inception eight years earlier."

The July 20, 1969, moon landing followed four test missions and came just two years after a fire that killed the first Apollo crew. Six lunar landings followed. A seventh flight, Apollo 13, was forced to abort its landing after an oxygen tank explosion crippled the spacecraft; the crew used its lunar lander as a "lifeboat" for much of their harrowing return to Earth.

Armstrong called the Apollo program "a superb national enterprise" that "left a lasting imprint on society and history."

"Our knowledge of the moon increased a thousandfold and more," he said. "Technologies were developed for interplanetary navigation and travel. Our home planet has been seen from afar, and that perspective has caused us to think about its and our significance. Children inspired by the excitement of space flight have come to appreciate the wonder of science, the beauty of mathematics and the precision of engineering."

He concluded, "Apollo was a good thing to do."

While fellow moonwalker Aldrin appeared on an episode of "The Simpsons," wrote a memoir that frankly discussed his bouts with alcoholism and depression and once punched out a conspiracy theorist who argued the landing was faked, Armstrong retreated to quiet obscurity after leaving NASA. He taught engineering at the University of Cincinnati in Ohio in the 1970s, was chairman of an aviation computer company until 1992 and served on the commission that investigated the loss of the space shuttle Challenger in 1986.

He has given only occasional interviews in the intervening decades and stopped signing autographs because he discovered his signature was being sold for profit.

Collins, who flew the Apollo 11 command module Columbia while Aldrin and Armstrong took the lander Eagle to the lunar surface, went on to serve as director of the Air and Space Museum. Columbia is now a prize exhibit at the facility.

Earlier, the crew met with President Obama, who hailed them as "genuine American heroes" and "the touchstone for excellence in exploration and discovery." Obama said the landing continued to inspire young people to study math and science in hopes of becoming astronauts.

As a boy in Hawaii, Obama recalled, he would go out with his grandfather to welcome back astronauts from missions that concluded with Pacific Ocean landings.

"I remember waving American flags and my grandfather telling me that the Apollo mission was an example of how Americans can do anything they put their minds to," he said.

Later, at the museum commemoration, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said Apollo "fundamentally changed how humankind views its place in the universe."

"What you achieved will never be forgotten," Bolden said. "Centuries from now, future generations will remember it was you -- you -- who took humankind's first steps beyond our planet."

Sarah Palin resigns as Alaska's governor, raising speculation on 2012

By Chris McGreal
guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/03/sarah-palin-steps-down-alaska-governor
Friday 3 July 2009 23.02 BST

Sarah Palin, the former Republican vice-presidential candidate who electrified her party's campaign last year, has resigned as Alaska's governor in a dramatic decision that has fuelled speculation she is positioning herself to run for president.

But after an at times rambling speech in which she compared herself to battle wounded American soldiers in Kosovo and said only dead fish go with the flow, Palin's critics accused her of a "flaky" decision and walking away from her post.

Palin, who built strong support among conservative Republicans as John McCain's running mate last year, said she will step down in three weeks because she can contribute more away from politics.

"We know we can effect positive change outside government at this moment in time on another scale and actually make a difference for our priorities," she said.

But Palin also hinted at continuing political ambitions when she repeated a quote she attributed to general Douglas MacArthur: "We are not retreating, we are advancing in another direction."

For someone who is supposedly stepping back from politics, Palin's resignation speech was weighty with policy specifics which prompted speculation that she is positioning herself for a 2012 presidential bid or seeking another office which would move her from distant Alaska to the heart of Washington politics.

But the timing, coming during one of the biggest American holidays of the year, independence day, raised questions among some of Republicans who accused her of attempting to escape falling poll numbers in Alaska as a series of economic problems and ethics investigations take their toll.

A prominent Republican strategist, Ed Rollins, who directed Ronald Reagan's election campaign, said Palin had made a serious mistake.

"She was a shooting star who dimmed in recent months and now she's crashed," he said.

Another Republican strategist, Tony Blankley, disagreed and said Palin appeared to have made a smart move to position herself for a run for president.

"It looks like she's moving down a path toward it," he said. "It frees her up. The normal rules don't seem to apply to her. She's a fascinating character who seems to do things her own way."

Blankley said that it makes sense for Palin to resign as governor if she is seeking higher office.

"This is going to be a pretty tough time for incumbents the next couple of years in America with everything going to tell and this may be a pretty good time not to be in office," he said.

Blankley also said that Palin faced particular difficulties trying to juggle a national campaign with being government of Alaska.

The geography is bad for her because it is several time zones and the better part of a day's travel from Washington. That limits her ability to maintain her profile by dropping in on important campaign states for short visits to whip up backing for a run for president. Quitting as governor will give her an opportunity to travel and court the Republican base among which she retains considerable support. Palin will also need to spend time in the capital developing relationships with key Republican strategists.

Palin remains a front runner among Republicans nationwide as a potential presidential candidate.

But other Republicans were more critical including John Weaver, a long-time confidant of McCain.

"We've seen a lot of nutty behaviour from governors and Republican leaders in the last three months, but this one is at the top of that," Weaver told the Washington Post.

Palin's resignation was swiftly criticised as "flaky" by her Democratic opponents who said it was part of a pattern of "bizarre" behaviour.

The Democratic National Committee said she is "leaving the people of Alaska high and dry ... or she simply can't handle the job now".

The timing of the announcement on the eve of independence day led some critics to accuse her of trying to bury the news of her resignation. But given that almost nothing else was going on it might have been a move to dominate the news bulletins as it forced Michael Jackson's death from the top slot.

"Some are going to question the timing of this, and let me say this decision has been in the works for quite a while," Palin said.

Palin addressed the numerous ethics investigations launched in to her alleged misuse of office by saying that taxpayer money was being wasted and deriding them as part of the "superficial political blood sport" against her since she shot to prominence as McCain's running mate.

Palin will hand power to her deputy, lieutenant governor Sean Parnell. The next election for Alaska governor is in 2010.

Senate Deadlock Hits New York Schools

By SUZANNE SATALINE
Wall Street Journal Online
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124646008894880301.html
July 2, 2009

New York City officials scrambled Wednesday to re-create a system of school governance that hasn't existed in seven years after a deadlocked state Senate failed to renew the mayor's control over public schools before a Tuesday deadline.

For three weeks the state Senate has declined to tackle controversial bills, including one that would have renewed Mayor Michael Bloomberg's control over New York City schools. Without that approval, the city was forced to revert to its 2002 system, hastily choosing a city school board. But there are no provisions in place to establish such entities as local school districts, creating a situation, the mayor said, in which the city could be accused of running the schools illegally.

The state senators -- locked in a 31-31 tie after two Democrats defected and then one returned -- have repeatedly met in their respective party conferences only and then adjourned, since neither party has enough votes to make law. For a while the crisis seemed to have minimal impact beyond exasperating government officials and amusing political pundits. But now the Senate's refusal to agree on its leadership is starting to hit cities.

In addition to the school-control legislation, the Senate didn't vote on Mr. Bloomberg's request to increase the city's sales tax, depriving the city this month of $60 million -- roughly the amount the city spends to employ 600 police officers, the mayor said. The gridlock also is threatening billions of dollars in federal grants, state aid to municipalities and tax increases that would have balanced local budgets.

Gov. David Paterson has obtained court orders compelling the Senate to meet, but most days it has been unable to get a quorum of 32 senators in the room at the same time to vote. Wednesday, as he has every day for nearly a week, the governor ordered the senators into a so-called extraordinary session, asking them to consider, among other bills, the New York City schools issue. The senators have rebuffed his pleas.

Gov. Paterson said Wednesday afternoon that he would keep the special session going through Monday, compelling the senators to spend the holiday weekend in Albany.

Early Wednesday, the mayor and the city's five borough presidents appointed a seven-member schools board, made up mostly of allies or employees of the mayor -- and thus likely to vote to disband itself should the Senate eventually affirm his control.

Some who oppose Mr. Bloomberg's control are scrutinizing the newly created board, questioning its resolution Wednesday to allow Chancellor Joel Klein to approve all contracts on its behalf.

"I don't know if they have the right to sign away...their fiduciary duties," said Leonie Haimson, executive director of Class Size Matters, an advocacy group that is critical of mayoral control.

The state Legislature allowed Mr. Bloomberg to take control over the city's schools in 2002, after city officials argued that the politically divided board of education had failed to improve school quality. The mayor has argued that schools have improved, with better standardized-test scores and graduation rates.

But Mr. Bloomberg's control has drawn the criticism of some parents and many teachers, who say the system leaves no room for the views of community members.

The state Senate is considering a bill to create a school board that, supporters say, would make teachers and parents partners with the mayor. A key Democratic Senate leader favors that setup.

Senate Republicans said they support renewal of mayoral control "and are prepared to pass it as soon as possible," said Scott Reif, a spokesman for Sen. Dean Skelos.

House Passes Climate Change Bill

by David Welna and Melissa Block
All Things Considered, June 26, 2009
NPR Online
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=105986624&ft=1&f=1001

The vote on a historic bill to fight global warming passed by just a seven-vote margin. The measure sets up a cap-and-trade system to limit greenhouse gas emissions, and encourage greater use of clean energy.

In a triumph for President Barack Obama, the Democratic-controlled House narrowly passed sweeping legislation Friday that calls for the nation's first limits on pollution linked to global warming and aims to usher in a new era of cleaner, yet more costly energy.

The vote was 219-212, capping months of negotiations and days of intense bargaining among Democrats. Republicans were overwhelmingly against the measure, arguing it would destroy jobs in the midst of a recession while burdening consumers with a new tax in the form of higher energy costs.

At the White House, Obama said the bill would create jobs and added that with its vote, the House had put America on a path leading the way toward "creating a 21st century global economy."

The House's action fulfilled Speaker Nancy Pelosi's vow to clear major energy legislation before July 4. It also sent the measure to a highly uncertain fate in the Senate, where Majority Leader Harry Reid said he was "hopeful that the Senate will be able to debate and pass bipartisan and comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation this fall."

Obama lobbied recalcitrant Democrats by phone from the White House as the House debate unfolded across several hours, and Al Gore posted a statement on his Web site saying the measure represents "an essential first step towards solving the climate crisis." The former vice president won a Nobel Peace Prize for his work drawing attention to the destructive potential of global warming.

On the House floor, Democrats hailed the legislation as historic, while Republicans said it would damage the economy without solving the nation's energy woes.

It is "the most important energy and environmental legislation in the history of our country," said Rep. Ed Markey of Massachusetts. "It sets a new course for our country, one that steers us away from foreign oil and toward a path of clean American energy."

But Rep. John Boehner, the House Republican leader, used an extraordinary one-hour speech shortly before the final vote to warn of unintended consequences in what he said was a "defining bill." He called it a "bureaucratic nightmare" that would cost jobs, depress real estate prices and put the government into parts of the economy where it now has no role.

The legislation would require the U.S. to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020 and by about 80 percent by mid-century. That was slightly more aggressive than Obama originally wanted, 14 percent by 2020 and the same 80 percent by midcentury.

U.S. carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels are rising at about 1 percent a year and are predicted to continue increasing without mandatory limits.

Under the bill, the government would limit heat-trapping pollution from factories, refineries and power plants and issue allowances for polluters. Most of the allowances would be given away, but about 15 percent would be auctioned by bid and the proceeds used to defray higher energy costs for lower-income individuals and families.

"Some would like to do more. Some would like to do less," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said in advance of the final vote. "But we have reached a compromise ... and it is a compromise that can pass this House, pass that Senate, be signed by the president and become law and make progress."

That seemed unlikely, judging from Reid's cautiously worded statement. "The bill is not perfect," it said, but rather "a good product" for the Senate to begin working on.

And there was plenty to work on in a House-passed measure that pointed toward higher electricity bills for the middle class, particularly in the Midwest and South, as well as steps to ease the way for construction of new nuclear reactors, the first to be built since the accident at Three Mile Island in 1979.

The bill's controversy was on display in the House, where only eight Republicans joined 211 Democrats in favor, while 44 Democrats joined 168 Republicans in opposition. And within an hour of the vote, both party campaign committees had begun attacking lawmakers for their votes.

One of the biggest compromises involved the near total elimination of an administration plan to sell pollution permits and raise more than $600 billion over a decade — money to finance continuation of a middle class tax cut. About 85 percent of the permits are to be given away rather than sold, a concession to energy companies and their allies in the House — and even that is uncertain to survive in the Senate.

The final bill also contained concessions to satisfy farm-state lawmakers, ethanol producers, hydroelectric advocates, the nuclear industry and others, some of them so late that they were not made public until 3 a.m. on Friday.

Supporters and opponents agreed the bill's result would be higher energy costs but disagreed vigorously on the impact on consumers. Democrats pointed to two reports — one from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office and the other from the Environmental Protection Agency — that suggested average increases would be limited after tax credits and rebates were taken into account. The CBO estimated the bill would cost an average household $175 a year, the EPA $80 to $110 a year.

Republicans questioned the validity of the CBO study and noted that even that analysis showed actual energy production costs increasing $770 per household. Industry groups have cited other studies showing much higher costs to the economy and to individuals.

The White House and congressional Democrats argued the bill would create millions of "green jobs" as the nation shifts to greater reliance on renewable energy sources such as wind and solar and development of more fuel-efficient vehicles — and away from use of fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal.

It will "make our nation the world leader on clean energy jobs and technology," declared Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., who negotiated deals with dozens of lawmakers in recent weeks to broaden the bill's support.

Pelosi, D-Calif., took an intense personal interest in the measure, sitting through hours of meetings with members of the rank and file and nurturing fragile compromises.

At its heart, the bill was a trade-off, less than the White House initially sought though it was more than Republicans said was acceptable. Some of the dealmaking had a distinct political feel.

Rep. Alan Grayson, a first-term Democrat, won a pledge of support that $50 million from the proceeds of pollution permit sales in the bill would go to a proposed new hurricane research facility in his district in Orlando, Fla.

In the run-up to the vote, Democrats left little to chance.

Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif., confirmed by the Senate on Thursday to an administration post, put off her resignation from Congress until after the final vote on the climate change bill.

Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., who has been undergoing treatment at an undisclosed facility, returned to the Capitol to support the legislation. He has said he struggles with depression, alcoholism and addiction, but has not specified the cause for his most recent absence.

Presidium chalks up $2M follow-on funding for ed tech

Presidium chalks up $2M follow-on funding for ed tech

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No Longer Letting Scores Separate Pupils

NEW YORK TIMES ONLINE
By WINNIE HU
Published: June 14, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/15/education/15stamford.html?_r=2

STAMFORD, Conn. — Sixth graders at Cloonan Middle School here are assigned numbers based on their previous year’s standardized test scores — zeros indicate the highest performers, ones the middle, twos the lowest — that determine their academic classes for the next three years.

But this longstanding system for tracking children by academic ability for more effective teaching evolved into an uncomfortable caste system in which students were largely segregated by race and socioeconomic background, both inside and outside classrooms. Black and Hispanic students, for example, make up 46 percent of this year’s sixth grade, but are 78 percent of the twos and 7 percent of the zeros.

So in an unusual experiment, Cloonan mixed up its sixth-grade science and social studies classes last month, combining zeros and ones with twos. These mixed-ability classes have reported fewer behavior problems and better grades for struggling students, but have also drawn complaints of boredom from some high-performing students who say they are not learning as much.

The results illustrate the challenge facing this 15,000-student district just outside New York City, which is among the last bastions of rigid educational tracking more than a decade after most school districts abandoned the practice. In the 1960s and early 1970s, Stamford sorted students into as many as 15 different levels; the current system of three to five levels at each of four middle schools will be replaced this fall by a two-tiered model, in which the top quarter of sixth graders will be enrolled in honors classes, the rest in college-prep classes. (A fifth middle school is a magnet school and has no tracking.)

More than 300 Stamford parents have signed a petition opposing the shift, and some say they are now considering moving or switching their children to private schools. “I think this is a terrible system for our community,” said Nicole Zussman, a mother of two.

Ms. Zussman and others contend that Stamford’s diversity, with poor urban neighborhoods and wealthy suburban enclaves, demands multiple academic tracks, and suggest that the district could make the system fairer and more flexible by testing students more frequently for movement among the levels.

But Joshua P. Starr, the Stamford superintendent, said the tracking system has failed to prepare children in the lower levels for high school and college. “There are certainly people who want to maintain the status quo because some people have benefited from the status quo,” he said. “I know that we cannot afford that anymore. It’s not fair to too many kids.”

Educators have debated for decades how to best divide students into classes. Some school districts focus on providing extra instruction to low achievers or developing so-called gifted programs for the brightest students, but few maintain tracking like Stamford’s middle schools (tracking is less comprehensive and rigid at the town’s elementary and high schools).

Deborah Kasak, executive director of the National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform, said research is showing that all students benefit from mixed-ability classes. “We see improvements in student behavior, academic performance and teaching, and all that positively affects school culture,” she said.

Daria Hall, a director with Education Trust, an advocacy group, said that tracking has worsened the situation by funneling poor and minority students into “low-level and watered-down courses.” “If all we expect of students is for them to watch movies and fill out worksheets, then that’s what they will give us,” she said.

In Stamford, black and Hispanic student performance on state tests has lagged significantly behind that of Asians and whites. In 2008, 98 percent of Asian students and 92 percent of white students in grades three to eight passed math, and 93 percent and 88 percent reading, respectively. Among black students, 63 percent passed math, and 56 percent reading; among Hispanic students, 74 percent passed math and 60 percent reading.

The district plans to keep a top honors level, but put the majority of students in mixed-ability classes, expanding the new system from sixth grade to seventh and eighth over three years. While the old system tracked students for all subjects based on math and English scores, the new one will allow students to be designated for honors in one subject but not necessarily another, making more students overall eligible for the upper track.

The staff of Cloonan Middle School decided to experiment with mixed-ability classes for the last eight weeks of this school year.

David Rudolph, Cloonan’s principal, said that parents have long complained that the tracking numbers assigned to students dictate not only their classes but also their friends and cafeteria cliques. Every summer, at least a dozen parents lobby Mr. Rudolph to move their children to the top track. “The zero group is all about status,” he said.

Jamiya Richardson, who is 11 and in the twos’ group, said that students all know their own numbers as well as those of their classmates. “I don’t like being classified because it makes you feel like you’re not smart,” she said.

The other day in Jamiya’s newly mixed social studies class, students debated who was to blame in an ancient Roman legal case in which a barber shaving a slave in a public square was hit by a ball and cut the slave’s throat. At one point, Jamiya was the only one in the class of 25 to argue that it was the slave’s fault because he sat there at his own risk — which the teacher said was the right answer.

Cloonan teachers say they had not changed the curriculum or slowed the pace for the mixed-ability classrooms, but tried to do more collaborative projects and discussions in hopes that students would learn from one another. But Joel Castle, who is 12 and a zero, said that he did not work as hard now. “My grades are going up, and that’s not really surprising because the standards have been lowered,” he said.

In a recent social studies class, the top students stood out as they presented elaborate homemade projects about Roman culture — mosaics, dresses, weaponry — while several of their classmates showed up empty-handed. One offered the excuse that his catapult had disappeared overnight from his bedside.

“A catapult thief?” questioned the teacher, Mimi Nichols, in disbelief before directing him to find his project by the next day.

Afterward, Ms. Nichols said that the less-motivated students had still learned from their classmates’ example. “That in itself is valuable,” she said. “For children to see what is possible.”

Schools 'too safe' teachers say

BBC NEWS ONLINE
Thursday, 18 June 2009
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/8107858.stm

Nearly half of teachers questioned for a survey believe the health and safety culture in schools is damaging children's learning.
When questioned by Teachers TV, teachers complained about a five-page briefing on using glue sticks and being told to wear goggles to put up posters.

Others said pupils were not allowed to enjoy the sun or snow without taking health and safety precautions.

Teachers TV surveyed 585 subscribers to the channel by questionnaire.

Around 45% of those who took part thought health and safety precautions had a negative effect on teachers, as well as on students' personal development and learning.

However, 45% said they did not think health and safety regulations were too restrictive.

And just over 10% of teachers surveyed thought accidents in schools had increased during the last five years.

The teachers were also asked about general safety - their own and that of their pupils.

More than half of those who responded - 56% - said they had had to deal with a situation where they suspected a child was being abused.

More than two in five said they were afraid to be alone in a room with a pupil in case they were falsely accused of inappropriate behaviour.

Just under a third of respondents said they were under-prepared in this area.

Questions regarding weapons checks in schools appeared to divide teachers.

Exactly half said they favoured weapons checks in schools and half opposed it.

Chief executive of Teachers TV Andrew Bethell said: "The more extreme examples [of health and safety] are thankfully not the norm but schools still need to take into consideration the workforce's concerns when trying to protect pupils.

"It is worrying that almost a third of the education workforce feel under-prepared to deal with the very complicated issues surrounding abuse and potential abuse."