Students With Disabilities and California's Special Education Program

Provides an overview of the state's special education programs, including eligibility, enrollment, student performance, time spent outside regular classrooms, spending, and financing, compared to national trends. Considers policy implications

Crossing boundaries: women's gossip, insults and violence in sixteenth-century France

Using evidence from cases recorded in the registers of the consistories of southern France, the author investigates the way in which Languedocian women policed each other's behaviour, enforcing a collective morality through gossip, sexual insult and physical confrontation. In contrast to case studies by other historians, it is argued here that gossip does appear to have been a peculiarly female activity, but far more than simply being an outlet for malice or prurience, it gave women a distinctive social role in the town. No less evident is the involvement of women in physical violence both against each other and against men, violence which, though less extreme than its male counterpart, nonetheless occupies a significant role in the proceedings of the consistories

[Review of] Charles V. Willie and Ronald R. Edmonds (Eds.). Black Colleges in America: Challenge, Development, Survival

This book is a collection of articles from the Black College Conference held at Harvard University in March and April of 1976. The authors are experienced administrators, teachers, and students of our nation\u27s black colleges and universities. This book attempts, through firsthand recording, through documentation of historical fact, and through analysis of governance, financing, and institutional role, to eradicate the negative images of our nation\u27s black colleges and universities

Resolving Special Education Disputes in California

Examines the use of mediation and due process hearings in resolving disputes between parents and school districts over identifying disabilities and designing individualized programs. Analyzes trends in and predictors of higher rates of hearing requests

Special Education Financing in California: A Decade After Reform

Examines special education funding sources and processes at federal, state, and local levels in 2006-07 and the impact of a 1997 reform bill. Recommends equalizing funding rates across districts, with adjustments for poverty and labor market conditions

Disabled or Young? Relative Age and Special Education Diagnoses in Schools

This study extends recent findings of a relationship between the relative age of students among their peers and their probability of disability classification. Using three nationally representative surveys spanning 1988-2004 and grades K-10, we find that an additional month of relative age decreases the likelihood of receiving special education services by 2-5 percent. Relative age effects are strong for learning disabilities but not for other disabilities. We measure them for boys starting in kindergarten but not for girls until 3rd grade. We also measure them for white and Hispanic students but not for black students or differentially by socioeconomic quartiles. Results are consistent with the interpretation that disability assessments do not screen for the possibility that relatively young students are over-referred for evaluation. Lastly, we present suggestive evidence that math achievement gains due to disability classification may differentially benefit relatively young students.Education, Relative Age, Special Education

Justice at the crossroads in Timor-Leste

Timor-Leste needs a radical overhaul of its judicial system, and there may be an opening now to push forward with reform. Introduction Judicial reform in Timor-Leste is at a crossroads, and the path taken will determine whether one of the world’s youngest countries can develop an independent, accountable and competent judiciary. The choices it now faces were highlighted by the government’s sudden expulsion of international judges in October 2014 that some saw as political intervention and others as a necessary measure to deepen reforms that have been quietly taking place since at least 2013. Judicial reform is part of a larger process of transition from an older generation of leaders steeped in the experience of exile and resistance to a younger generation shaped more by the Indonesian occupation and the first decade of independence. The question now is whether both have the will to undertake the sweeping overhaul of the legal system needed. The detailed recommendations at the end of this report suggest a possible way forward. The judiciary’s problems are rooted in the violent upheaval that took place in 1999 in what was then the Indonesian province of East Timor, after a United Nations-supervised referendum produced an overwhelming vote to separate from Indonesia. The UN assumed temporary responsibility for the country’s administration, placing many of the most essential judicial functions in the hands of international judicial officers and advisors. Fifteen years later, the judiciary of independent Timor-Leste was still heavily dependent on Portuguese-speaking international personnel. Then, in October 2014, almost all of the internationals still employed as judges, prosecutors, public defenders and investigators were ordered to leave the country within 48 hours. Trials in which international judges were participating were stopped. The country’s national judicial training facility for judges, prosecutors, and public defenders ceased to function. The fate of pending cases of serious crimes against humanity from 1999 was thrown into question. The mechanism for promoting judges, required for key positions in the judiciary including the eventual Supreme Court, ceased to exist. There were two major interpretations of the expulsions. The first view, widely heard at the time, was that they were politically motivated to increase the government’s control over judicial functions and the legal profession. The second view, gradually gaining ground, is that the systemic problems were so severe and the dependence on internationals of dubious competence so great that political intervention was a prerequisite of real reform. However one interprets the expulsions, there is a broad consensus across the government and political elite that major change is required and that the era of international dominance is over, leaving the Timorese to finally take full responsibility for their judicial institutions. The crucial question now is whether the current government’s planned reforms—in legal education, professional training and access to justice—will succeed in providing a judiciary that meets its citizens’ needs. The alternative will be “Timorisation” without meaningful reform. This report is based on three months of primary and secondary source research, including a field visit and court monitoring in Dili, Timor-Leste during February 2015 by the authors, David Cohen and Leigh-Ashley Lipscomb. The authors conducted 39 interviews with representatives of the justice sector, civil society organisations, service providers, government officials, the United Nations and the international donor community. The Court of Appeal and the Judicial System Monitoring Programme (JSMP), an NGO, provided the majority of statistical data analysed in this report

Proceedings of the NSSDC Conference on Mass Storage Systems and Technologies for Space and Earth Science Applications

The proceedings of the National Space Science Data Center Conference on Mass Storage Systems and Technologies for Space and Earth Science Applications held July 23 through 25, 1991 at the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center are presented. The program includes a keynote address, invited technical papers, and selected technical presentations to provide a broad forum for the discussion of a number of important issues in the field of mass storage systems. Topics include magnetic disk and tape technologies, optical disk and tape, software storage and file management systems, and experiences with the use of a large, distributed storage system. The technical presentations describe integrated mass storage systems that are expected to be available commercially. Also included is a series of presentations from Federal Government organizations and research institutions covering their mass storage requirements for the 1990's

Early Grade Retention and Student Success: Evidence From Los Angeles

Analyzes risk factors of retention through third grade in the L.A. Unified School District, including age, gender, race/ethnicity, family income, and English learner status; retention's effectiveness in improving grade-level skills; and educators' views