Word: firsts
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Police said that Bruno first spotted the young woman, whom he did not know, in Harvard Square around noon Monday morning...
Because the woman first saw her attacker in Harvard Square, officers with the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) assisted in the investigation and issued a community advisory last Wednesday. Officers were told to keep an eye out for the suspect...
This crisis is the result of the implementation of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS), a series of statewide standardized tests that every high school student must pass to graduate, beginning with the class of 2003. This high-stakes, high-standards test is the first in the nation to require students to reach what may be a prohibitively high level of competence for the average student. For months, educators and parents around the state have been waiting with bated breath to see what grade would constitute a passing mark on this test. That grade was revealed on Nov. 23, when...
...massive infusion of effort would cause scores to improve so substantially that very few students would fail the exam, then perhaps the proposed high stakes system would be reasonable. However, overall scores rose only very slightly from the first time the test was taken to the second time. In some areas, scores fell despite classroom emphasis on test preparation. It seems clear that scores on this test, like the quality of education in general, can change only gradually. Three years is not enough time to improve a 40 percent failure rate to a reasonable success rate...
...students who will be clawing for their passing grade were first exposed to this type of test in eighth grade, and their low scores did not come as a great shock. The standardized frameworks for English and math, on which the test is based, were completed only a couple of years ago. Since they were distributed, teachers have been expected to adapt to these frameworks, and students have tried valiantly to mold their answers to the format that the MCAS encourages. However, the timetable has been too short, and it is the students who are being shortchanged...