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February, 2001 Zero judgment A few days ago, police arrested a 19-year-old San Jose man whoĂd assembled an arsenal of bombs and shotguns, and a plan for a Columbine-style massacre at his community college. (No chicken fingers were found.) Suspect Al De Guzman filled web sites with hateful blather but apparently couldnĂt express his anger to his family and friends. ThatĂs so common itĂs a cliche: He was the quiet type. He never made any trouble. He seemed like such a nice boy.ĂĂ We don't need more quiet types. -- 2/2 The 90-minute answer Disabled how? DonĂt ask. And donĂt look for an asterisk by JasonĂs test score, to indicate he got extra time. To settle a disability bias lawsuit, the Educational Testing Service will stop noting who got special help on tests taken by applicants to graduate school and business school. Also included in the settlement are Praxis, a subject-matter exam for new teachers, and the Test of English as a Foreign Language. The SATs are not. In theory, the disability affects Jason's test-taking performance, not his chances for success. The extra time is supposed to give him a fair chance to show his stuff. But there's no proof that Jason's 270 minutes are the equivalent of Jose's 180. Essentially, an extra 90 minutes is assumed to be the equalizer for all disabilities. That's absurd. With "disability" fuzzily defined, last-minute learning disability claims -- usually from affluent white students -- are increasing rapidly. The California state auditor looked at extra time given to SAT test-takers claiming disability. The Los Angeles Times reports: Auditing the files of 330 students in 18 public schools, it found the basis for their special treatment to be questionable in 60 cases, or 18.2%. Students at private schools are four times as likely to get extra time.ĂĂ Such help was nearly nonexistent for poor, minority students in urban public schools.ĂĂ -- 2/10 Success is no excuse But the California Association for Bilingual Education is lobbying legislators to reject Ichinaga's appointment. Ichinaga is "unable to objectively represent the interests of language minority students," CABE claims. She isn't knowledgeable about the "needs" of students from immigrant families. Translation: She endorsed Proposition 227, which limited bilingual education. "In many categories, STAR scores for Bennett-Kew's limited English students are close to double the scores for limited English students statewide," writes Debra Saunders in the Feb. 11 San Francisco Chronicle. "So Ichinaga not only knows how to represent the interests of immigrant kids, more important, she knows how to educate them." Ichinaga herself is the daughter of immigrants. She started school in Hawaii speaking Japanese and some pidgin English, she told Saunders. CABE used to wield great political power, which it used to block reform of California's bilingual education rules. That led to Proposition 227. By opposing a fantastically successful principal, CABE shreds what's left of its credibility and its clout. -- 2/11 'P' is for patronizing the
poor So why all the fuss over President BushĂs plan to get Head Start teachers to teach pre-reading skills? Critics are acting as though Bush wants to replace story time with SAT drills. The tots will be traumatized if they fail at pre-reading, say child development experts quoted in the Feb. 10 New York Times. Apparently, it's OK to teach "The Itsy Bitsy Spider,'' with those tricky finger movements, but developmentally dangerous to teach "The Alphabet Song." Head Start is supposed to prepare needy children for school, but focuses on providing access to health care and social services. The average Head Start grad starts kindergarten knowing only two letters, according to a government study. Bush wants Head Start teachers to use a curriculum developed by Texas researchers, which has proven effective at preparing low-income, minority students for reading. Here's a lesson on syllables: Rickety Rackety Ree, clap and say these words with me: Mu-sic Lis-ten Fa-ther Now you can say a word with two parts. It's not exactly boot camp, is it? Nor does it take up the whole day, leaving no time for play, story time, fingerpainting or snack. If Thistleberry's three-year-olds can do the "letter of the week,'' so can Head Start kids. Before we assume they can't learn, let's try teaching them. --2/14 Safe smokes In other words, people who choose to smoke are safety-conscious folks who wouldn't want to risk smoking a tobacco modified to remove carcinogens. Are smokers that stupid? Don't answer. -- 2/16 Justice delayed Bush, with no need to prove he's tough on crime, could do better, Raspberry believes. Then he asks: "Who would get more credit among black voters -- Bush for reforming the sentencing disparities we've been complaining about for so long? Or Clinton, for looking for office space in Harlem?'' Among Clinton's pardons were low-level, non-violent, first-time drug offenders caught by the mandatory minimum law. Now he's trying to use those acts of mercy to provide cover for the pardon of well-connected cocaine dealer Carlos Vignali, whose father made big contributions to Democratic politicians and gave $200,000 to presidential brother-in-law Hugh Rodham. Writing in the Feb. 17 New York Times, Clinton said he was pardoning little-known first offenders caught in the mandatory minimum sentencing laws. "I felt they had served long enough given the particular circumstances of the individual cases. Many of these were first-time nonviolent offenders with no previous criminal records; in some cases, codefendants had received significantly shorter sentences." Vignali was convicted of financing an 800-pound cocaine deal; he was caught on wiretaps arranging delivery. Both the judge and prosecutor in the case say Vignali was a major player. All but one of his 30 co-defendants remain in prison. -- 2/22 Kill the messenger Tree killers Some of the trees were transgenic; others were not, according to Oregon State forest science professor Steven Strauss. He was studying "ways to control flowering, fertility and cross pollination," reports KGW. That is, Strauss was researching ways to prevent the bogey the eco-kooks fear most: the unwanted spread of high-tech hybrids. -- 2/24 Attention must be paid Too Nice for His Own Good? One aide said Clinton was especially
worried that cases of "low-level drug offenders languishing in prison
with harsh sentences weren't getting to his attention." If Clinton
really wanted to pardon more of the deserving poor, he could have checked
out Families
Against Mandatory Minimums' list of 487 low-level, first-time offenders
who received long sentences before the sentencing rules were eased. FAMM
says 500 clemency applications are filed annually, more than enough to
choose from. If Clinton had started this mercy thing earlier in his eight-year
presidency, he might have shown compassion to an estimated 24,000 federal
prisoners doing hard time for low-level drug crimes. But the little fish
can't afford Hugh Rodham's legal fees. -- 2/25
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