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Jaden Smith isn’t content with sticking to just one music genre. On Thursday, the 18-year-old multi-hyphenate announced he was starting a rock band with his sister Willow and girlfriend Odessa Adlon. He even gave fans a taste of what they have in store.
Yes Odessa Is In The Band So Is Willow.
I'm Serious I Actually Wanna Be A K Pop Star.
G Dragon Is My Inspiration.
It sounds like fans won't have to wait too long to hear Jaden's take on the Korean music genre. On Thursday, he told fans they could expect his first K-pop single before summer’s end.
And Yes I Will Be Dropping A K Pop Single In The Next 4 Months.
But that's not all he has on deck. Jaden also revealed he would release two videos within the next month, presumably for tracks off his upcoming debut studio album Syre.
Does this mean the long-awaited album is around the corner? Stay tuned.
October 29, 2013 | Includes updates and/or revisions.
How do you measure school quality?
A seasoned educator can get a feel for a school in a day, though it might take a year to determine its particular strengths and weaknesses. Yet parents do not have that luxury; they cannot spend long stretches of time visiting all of the schools they might send their children to. And even if they did, many might not be sure what to look for.
Given this challenge, parents tend to rely on rougher indicators of quality—word-of-mouth and standardized-test scores. Parents weigh these two factors together and then make enrollment decisions with a relative sense of confidence. But these mechanisms are highly problematic and deserve careful scrutiny.
The most obvious issue is one of inaccuracy. A school can have a good reputation or impressive test scores because it caters to a privileged population. But, as research indicates, these high-scoring schools often add less value than some of their competitors with lesser reputations or lower scores.
"We believe it is possible to give parents richer and more useful information about schools."
A second problem is the effect that these indicators, particularly raw test scores, have on the system as a whole. Because standardized-test scores offer a narrow and opaque measure of performance—a measure most useful for myopically ranking schools against each other—reliance on them has ensured a small number of winners and a large number of losers. This, in turn, has damaged the reputations of countless schools and intensified the alarmist narrative of educational decline.
Finally, these methods of gauging quality are troubling because they have promoted segregation. Schools with strong scores and reputations become objects of intense competition and ultimately propel property values upward and price out the working class. Consequently, even if schools in lower-income neighborhoods are good, working-class children remain isolated from their more privileged peers, gain less access to social capital, and enjoy fewer of the resources that privileged parents bring to bear on their children's schools. And for their part, privileged students are denied engagement with those different from themselves.
Of course, merely demonstrating the inadequacies of these measures is not enough. Parents are desperate for information. And, insofar as that is the case, they will invariably opt for unreliable intelligence over none at all.
But what if we had better, more accurate measures?
"We urge scholars and policymakers to build additional tools to help parents make more informed decisions about the schools that best suit their children."
Recently, we collaborated with The Boston Globe in designing a school-rating tool that we believe will move the conversation beyond reputation or raw test scores. Pulling from the various data available to us, we include measures that reflect something about school quality. And recognizing the fact that rating schools is an inherently subjective enterprise, our model allows parents to customize rankings based on personal values, including school culture, college readiness, and diversity.
The tool is imperfect, certainly. After all, such measures are constrained by available data, which is not necessarily what we might wish for in an ideal situation. And every state approaches data collection differently, so our model is not perfectly replicable. In Massachusetts, for instance, the state generates a student growth percentile, or SGP—a measure that gauges growth by comparing one student's history of exam scores with those of all the other students in the state with a similar testing history. On the whole, however, our tool turns the tables on some conventional thinking about school quality in the state, and we believe it will change the way parents make decisions.
So what are our measures?
The first two are drawn directly from the state using SGP for English/language arts and mathematics. Such information, we recognize, is not currently available in all states. But many are moving toward a model that does a better job of leveling the playing field between groups with different background characteristics.
Our third and fourth categories are "school climate" and "college readiness." For the former, we use graduation and dropout rates, proxies for student and adult commitment to the process of education, as well as high school seniors' college plans. For the latter, we use SAT writing scores and the percentage of students scoring 3 or higher on Advanced Placement tests, two relatively strong predictors of college success. Such data are widely available and, therefore, this aspect of measurement is easy to reproduce.
Lastly, we include "school resources" and "diversity." While research is mixed about the exact impact of money, it is clear that greater resources can afford a wider range of opportunities for students. And while not all parents value diversity in schooling, it is a factor that many consider invaluable in the process of education. Our measure for school resources (expenditures per student) is straightforward. But in order to measure diversity, we have to be more creative. We imagine a level of "perfect diversity" for schools and then calculate the distance between a school's actual population and that ideal.
Again, our tool is a limited one. Graduation from high school and intent to pursue higher education are hardly ideal proxies for school climate. Our measure of college readiness relies, imperfectly, on standardized-test scores. We have an imperfect picture of school resources, tracking how much money is spent but not how it is spent. And our diversity calculation might be criticized as somewhat arbitrary: It is based on a scenario in which white, African-American, Latino and Hispanic students, and students of other racial or ethnic groups each make up 25 percent of the school's population. We freely admit all of this, and we have encouraged our critics to join us in advocating for the systemic collection of richer and more varied data at the district or state levels.
But despite these limitations, we believe this is the first step toward creating a better source of information for the public. As such, we urge scholars and policymakers to build additional tools to help parents make more informed decisions about the schools that best suit their children.
Beyond providing better information to parents, however, our interest lies in restoring some breadth and sanity to the way we evaluate schools. Americans are bombarded by policy talk framing most schools, particularly those not located in leafy suburbs, as abysmal failures. This disaster narrative is largely sustained by measures of quality that align neatly with wealth and position, reducing schools to competing with each other rather than being identified by their unique strengths. The most disturbing outcome of this propensity is greater inequity.
Quality-conscious middle-income parents cluster together at highly sought-after schools, seeking to better serve their own children. In the process, they not only weaken the schools they leave behind, depleting them of resources and damaging their reputations, but also, in doing so, provide a narrower educational experience for their own children. Everyone loses.
We believe it is possible to give parents richer and more useful information about schools. And, we believe it is possible to do so in a manner that builds confidence rather than eroding it. That means promoting more winners, certainly. But it also means fostering a broader sense of what it means to win, reframing our conversations about school quality to align with our true values, and laying the groundwork for an education system that is both more inclusive and more integrated.
Jack Schneider is an assistant professor of education at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., and the author of the forthcoming book From the Ivory Tower to the Schoolhouse: How Scholarship Becomes Common Knowledge in Education (Harvard Education Press, 2014). He can be found on Twitter @edu_historian.
Anil Nathan is an assistant professor in the department of economics and accounting at the College of the Holy Cross, where he researches and teaches the economics of education.
"Digital Toolkit Provides Parents With School Guidance," (K-12 Parents and the Public Blog) Oct. 14, 2013.
"Teachers Better Gauges of School Quality Than Parents, NYC Research Says," (K-12 Parents and the Public Blog) June 17, 2013.
"What's the Best Way to Measure School Climate?," (Rules for Engagement Blog) June 10, 2013.
"Students Need 8 Critical Conditions for Success," (John Wilson Unleashed Blog) May 2, 2013.
Give a gift from the heart this Valentine’s Day by donating blood.
The Sevastopol FFA will sponsor a Red Cross blood drive from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Feb. 14 at the school.
FFA member Ashley Schultz said, “One pint of blood can help save three lives.” Ashley’s mom, Julie Haen, started the event back when she attended Sevastopol High School, and it has become an annual happening ever since.
To make an appointment, call Ag Instructor and FFA advisor Dale Carlson at 920-743-6282, Ext. 1124.
The Door Pioneer Trailblazers invites everyone to the Institute Saloon dance hall Saturday evening for their annual snowmobile dance.
The dance and snacks are in thanks to land owners who have allowed snowmobilers to utilize trails crossing over their properties this season.
Modern Day Drifters will provide dancing music from 8 p.m. to midnight. There will be raffles and door prices, with proceeds going to support the maintenance and signage of Door County snowmobile trails.
The saloon is located at the intersection of State 57 and County P in downtown Institute, just north of Sturgeon Bay.
Sevastopol School will host the Wisconsin School Music Association’s district festival Feb. 17. Music Director Tanya Hasenjager is looking for volunteers to act as room monitors and office workers for the day, half-day or even a few spare hours. Volunteers will help make this event a well-organized, successful and memorable experience for the many students who will be on school grounds from approximately 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
The WSMA district festivals across the state draw more than 100,000 students representing every county in Wisconsin. Participants learn the discipline of rehearsal, perform in front of an audience and are challenged to advance their musical skills. Qualifiers from the district solo and ensemble competitions then have the opportunity to perform at the state level in late April and early May.
If you are able to help out next Saturday, please call Sevastopol Choir Director Shannon Sheehan at 920-743-6282, Ext. 1187. Sevastopol School thanks you in advance for your help.
Sevastopol School district families with children who will be four years old before Sept. 1 can register Feb. 15 for four-year-old kindergarten, or 4K. The registration is for the 2018-19 school year and parents will have the opportunity to meet with instructors and representatives from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. that day.
Parent-teacher conferences will also be conducted on Feb. 15, from noon to 4 p.m. and 5 to 8 p.m. Elementary classes have scheduled appointments, while middle and high school parents are welcome anytime within the stated hours.
Call the elementary or middle/high school offices at 920-743-6282 for more information.
Having conquered both the Xbox 360 and PS3 in sales, Nintendo's biggest competitor may be freeloading pirates.
After its annual lobby efforts with the US Trade Representative, the company singled out Brazil, China, Korea, Mexico, Paraguay, and Spain as piracy havens and asked the government to take further steps to combat Nintendo bootlegs—for example, pressuring offending nations to clean up their act.
play DVDs, homebrewed software, and illegally copied games.
"These devices skirt the product security embedded in Nintendo’s famous products and enable the play of illegal Nintendo software," the company said in a statement today. "It is important for parents to note that if users of circumvention devices are children, they may be exposed to unsuitable content downloaded from the Internet."
Spain for having lax legisltation to combat piracy.
-- California ISO selects joint venture to finance, construct, own, operate and maintain the Delaney to Colorado River 500 kV transmission line project.
GREENWICH, Conn., July 13, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Abengoa (MCE: ABG.B/P SM /NASDAQ: ABGB), the company that applies innovative technology solutions for sustainability in the energy and environment sectors, and Starwood Energy, a private investment firm based in Greenwich, CT, have announced that their joint venture has been selected by the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) as the approved sponsor to finance, construct, own, operate and maintain the Delaney to Colorado River 500 kV transmission line project.
Abengoa and Starwood Energy will undertake joint development of a 114 mile transmission line between Delaney and Colorado River substations, reinforcing the electrical interconnection between both California and Arizona. Abengoa will undertake construction, operation and maintenance of the transmission line. Total investment was initially estimated by CAISO at approximately 300 million dollars.
The project is expected to reach commercial operation in 2020 and will bring significant economic benefits to California rate payers.
"This new award will help us to accelerate our development in the power transmission market in the United States, where we expect to continue leveraging our global expertise in order to become a significant player in development, engineering, construction and maintenance of large transmission assets," said Santiago Seage, CEO of Abengoa.
"We are very gratified by CAISO's thorough process, analysis and decision in the selection of our joint venture as the sponsor of this new transmission project," added Himanshu Saxena, Managing Director of Starwood Energy. "This project is a continuation of Starwood Energy's very successful track record of developing essential energy infrastructure projects. We are looking forward to making this project a success for all stakeholders and to helping California meet its ambitious energy objectives."
Starwood Energy Group is a private investment firm based in Greenwich, CT that specializes in energy infrastructure investments. Through its general opportunity funds known as Starwood Energy Infrastructure Fund I and II, and other affiliated investment vehicles, Starwood Energy Group manages total equity commitments of more than $2 billion. The Starwood Energy Group team brings extensive development, construction, operations, acquisition and financing expertise to its investments, with a focus on the natural gas and renewable power generation, and transmission sectors. To date, Starwood Energy Group and its affiliates have committed to energy infrastructure transactions totaling approximately $4 billion in enterprise value. Starwood Energy Group is an affiliate of Starwood Capital Group Global, L.P. Additional information about Starwood Energy Group as well as Starwood Capital Group can be found at www.starwoodenergygroup.com.
Brad Pitt in "War Machine."
Half-cocked. Running time: 122 minutes. Not rated. Now playing on Netflix and at iPic Theaters at Fulton Market.
The new Netflix movie “War Machine” is half dark, deliciously topical political satire and half somber portrait of a flailing counterinsurgency effort.
The two don’t mesh well, and given the number of modern war movies already out there, it should have stuck with the former — a glibly narrated commentary on the foibles of Gen. Glen McMahon (Brad Pitt), tasked with the leadership of US and coalition forces in 2009 Afghanistan.
Writer/director David Michod (”Animal Kingdom”) bases his screenplay on the book “The Operators” by Michael Hastings, a dramatized chronicle of the events leading to the firing of Gen. Stanley McChrystal in 2010.
With his sandpaper voice and one squinty eye, Pitt’s performance feels like something out of a Coen brothers movie. It’s a much livelier role than his recent outing in the staid “Allied”; Pitt’s always at his best when he throws off the too-serious mantle of Romantic Hero, and he seems to be having a ball here. Too bad the screenplay seems to lose interest in him halfway through.
He and Michod initially dish up a withering and tragic portrait of the strutting general, a “throwback to another era” who sleeps four hours a night, eats one meal a day, and believes in one thing above all else: Winning.
McMahon’s surrounded himself with yes-men generals: There’s Anthony Michael Hall as the rageaholic, Emory Cohen as the good-natured lackey and Topher Grace as the mercenary PR weasel.
Through the narration of journalist Sean Cullen (Scoot McNairy), following the team for a Rolling Stone story, we watch McMahon bluster his way through one disappointing meeting after another: President Hamid Karzai (Ben Kingsley) greets McMahon’s hoorah attitude with aristocratic amusement. A local poppy grower, asked why he won’t switch to cotton, tells McMahon the US won’t let him compete with its own farmers: “So we’re growing heroin instead.” The Germans agree to send more troops on one condition: They’re not allowed to leave the base.
Tilda Swinton steals a scene (as always) as a German politician who challenges McMahon’s bloviating “hearts and minds” European press conference, pointing out that he barely mentions al Qaeda, the purported reason the US is there in the first place. Lakeith Stanfield shines as a Marine who dares to express his confusion at how, exactly, one is supposed to tell who the bad guys are in an insurgency. Meg Tilly is sympathetic and sad as McMahon’s barely seen wife.
McMahon’s tenure nears an end, and the narrative itself seems to reflect the general’s defeated mood. As the absurdist angle drains away like a slow leak, it’s fun to imagine how a satirical master like Armando Iannucci (“Veep”) might have wrapped this one up with a zing instead of a whimper.
Winterberg in Germany will host the final leg of the International Ski Federation Snowboard World Cup season this weekend as parallel slalom and parallel slalom team racing dominate the programme.
The United States' Lindsey Jacobellis and Czech Republic's Eva Samková will go head-to-head for the women's overall title when the International Ski Federation (FIS) Snowboard Cross World Cup season concludes in Veysonnaz in Switzerland this weekend.
Switzerland's Andri Ragettli will make his return from injury in Quebec as he bids to win the Freestyle Skiing World Cup's overall big air title.
Canada’s Simon d'Artois and home favourite David Wise came out on top in their respective heats as halfpipe qualification took place today at the International Ski Federation Freestyle Skiing World Cup in Mammoth Mountain in California.
World champion Eva Samková of the Czech Republic moved level with American Lindsey Jacobellis at the top of the International Ski Federation Snowboard Cross World Cup standings with victory in Baqueira Beret in Spain.
Recently-crowned world champion Eva Samková of the Czech Republic topped women's qualification at the International Ski Federation Snowboard Cross World Cup in Baqueira Beret in Spain today.
Baqueira Beret in Spain will host the penultimate stop of the International Ski Federation Snowboard Cross World Cup season.
SUNNYVALE, Calif., Jan. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Finisar Corporation (NASDAQ:FNSR), a global technology leader for subsystems and components for fiber optic communications, today announced the retirement of Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jerry Rawls and the appointment of Michael Hurlston as Chief Executive Officer and a director of the Company effective today. Mr. Hurlston and Mr. Rawls will work together to ensure a smooth transition. Mr. Rawls will continue to serve as a Director of the Company. The Company’s Lead Director Robert Stephens has been appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors.
Michael Hurlston most recently served as a Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Mobile Connectivity Products/Wireless Communications and Connectivity Division at Broadcom Limited. Previously, he held senior leadership positions in sales, marketing and general management at Broadcom. Prior to joining Broadcom in 2001, Mr. Hurlston held senior marketing and engineering positions at Oren Semiconductor, Inc., Avasem, Integrated Circuit Systems, Micro Power Systems, Exar and IC Works. Mr. Hurlston is also a Director of Ubiquiti Networks, Inc. and a member of the Board of Advisors of Vilynx Inc. Mr. Hurlston received a B.S.E.E., an M.S.E.E. and an M.B.A. from the University of California, Davis.
Just 9 years old and speedskating for less than two years, Carl Tatelli was excited for a two-hour practice with his friends.
He stretched inside the blue spandex suit he was wearing and laced up the boots to his 14-inch skates.
"It's fun — you get to go really fast," he said, explaining his passion for the sport. "And if you work hard you get to go to the Olympics."
Tatelli is off to a promising start. He is a member of the Northbrook Speedskating Club — a place where Olympics dreams are realized on a regular basis.
For more than a half-century, the club has been a reliable pipeline for sending skaters to the international stage. The north suburban club has produced an Olympic skater every Winter Games but one since 1952. At the 2010 Vancouver Games, club alumni included skaters Lana Gehring, Mitch Whitmore and Brian Hansen.
Hansen, 23, who won a silver medal in 2010, and Whitmore, 24, continue the tradition next month in Sochi, Russia.
"Northbrook was huge because it allowed me to stay close to home while training," Hansen, who joined the club when he was 8, said. "I didn't realize it when I was younger, that I really grew up in a speedskating hub."
The Midwest has been at the center of U.S. speedskating since the sport first appeared at the Olympics in 1924. Household and legendary names include Del Lamb and Eric Heiden from Wisconsin as well as Bonnie Blair and Shani Davis from Illinois. But outside the few regional hubs, speedskating has little following.
Not in Northbrook, which has been called the "Speedskating Capital of the World." The club has sent more than 20 skaters to Winter Games. Five went on to win medals, a handful became coaches and many others remain involved in the sport. A crowded trophy case inside the Northbrook Sports Complex includes 17 plaques for speedskaters.
The names could fill trivia books. Dave Cruikshank, a four-time Olympian, came from Northbrook. The "Golden Girls" of Dianne Holum and Anne Henning were young phenoms from Northbrook who each won gold in 1972. The club also produced Andy Gabel, a silver medalist, and three-time silver medalist Leah Poulos-Mueller, both of whom later served with the national governing body.
"I saw the rink for the speedskaters — I went in there and kind of never came out," said Cruikshank, originally a hockey player who now owns a training center in Milwaukee . "I went to my first practice and I was hooked. I love speed and I love going fast."
Today, the club has about two-dozen skaters — mostly kids — who practice two nights a week in the winter and face other clubs regionally on weekends. The nonprofit organization has a shoestring budget, averaging about $45,000, according to its last three tax returns, and its officials say it struggles for money and members.
It's kept alive thanks to the enthusiasm of volunteer parents and coaches. The kids are coached by a 32-year-old alumnus of the club who is assisted by 83-year-old Chuck Burke — the club's first Olympian who went to two Games in the 1950s.
"More Olympic skaters come out of here than any other part of Illinois, perhaps the entire country," said Burke, who became a national star skating through flaming hoops on ABC's "Wide World of Sports." He's been coaching on and off for 40 years.
The club promotes making friends and improving speedskating. But it's also about becoming stronger, gaining speed and beating the competition.
"Once the gun goes off," Burke said, "it's on."
In the middle of the last century, speedskating meets in Chicago drew hundreds of skaters and spectators. But as rinks gradually disappeared — today there is just one indoor rink the city — the suburbs were growing. Speedskating clubs began to form, soon producing legends in the sport: four-time Olympian and current coach Nancy Swider-Peltz from Park Ridge and three-time Olympian Keith Meyer of Glen Ellyn.
Success in Northbrook is not so much from longevity — Glen Ellyn Speedskating formed in 1937 — but rather from having the right facilities. An outdoor cycling track that was flooded and frozen for skaters, for example, gave the club a huge advantage.