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NJ Spotlight--Senate Says Schools Will Remain ‘No-Questions-Asked’ Safe Zones for All Students
Upper chamber also resolves not to support Trump’s executive order on immigrants and refugees from Muslim-majority countries
Although the action is more symbolic than substantial, New Jersey’s state Senate yesterday sent a clear message that its Democratic majority would resist President Donald Trump’s immigration restrictions, at least on paper.
The votes on the two resolutions followed party lines, with only state Sen. Jeff Van Drew (D-Atlantic) defecting from the Democrats. They drew impassioned pleas from Democratic lawmakers and dominated the news for the otherwise-quiet Senate session.
One measure declared that the state did not support Trump’s executive orders clamping down on immigrants and refugees from seven Muslim-majority countries.
The other cited existing law and court precedent that fortified public schools and universities as so-called safe zones, with schools required to serve all students and prohibited from even asking about students’ immigration status.
John Mooney | February 7, 2017
NY Times--Trying to Solve a Bigger Math Problem
Algebra is clearly a stumbling block for many incoming college students. Nearly 60 percent of community college students end up in remedial math — that’s more than double the number in remedial English. Four-year public colleges are not far behind. According to government studies, 40 percent of their incoming students take at least one remedial class; 33 percent are in math.
One explanation is obvious: limited academic preparation. Another is that much of the community college population is older, and rusty at factoring quadratics and finding inverse functions. Less obvious is that students end up in remediation who don’t need to be there.
There’s evidence for this, most recently in an analysis published in September by the National Center for Education Statistics. To determine if students are ready for college-level work, colleges often rely on one thing: the score on a test, be it the ACT, SAT or Accuplacer, the most common of the placement tools.
By EMILY HANFORD|FEB. 3, 2017
