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This article briefly examines communication skills. Although the article approaches such skills from a teacher to student perspective, I think a lot of the material can be used in any type of group or individual setting. After defining oral communication and listening, the article offers two methods for assessing speaking skills-the observational approach and the structured approach. Both methods can be assessed through a rating system. The assessment of listening skills is similar to a reading comprehensive test. The elements of a listening test are the stimuli, the question, and the test environment. The article offers assessment for communication skills in hopes to develop such skills and abilities to listen criticlly and to express oneself clearly.

A teacher discusses her experiences dealing with standarized tests. She has found that interactive games are the most effective way to help her students review the concepts they have been taught. Games are fun and encourage cooperation and teamwork. Examples she provides include "Eggspert" and PowerPoint games. She also provides links to templates of some of the PowerPoint games she uses.

What stress reduction techniques can I provide and make available for allied health students? Here is a web sites I think anyone can utilize to reduce their stress.This site has a plethora of tools to help students with Attention and Learning ,Encoding and Retrieval, Group and Cooperative Learning, Memory, Monitoring, Motivation, Note Taking, Organization, Problem Solving and Critical Thinking, Questioning, Reading Comprehension, Test Anxiety, Test Preparation, Test Taking, Time Management, Writing, Proofreading and much more. A really nice plan for students and how they can reduce their stress while in school. Enjoy Mary McGurn

This article outlined several issues. 1. High powered politicians coming together to make decisions on federal policy that directly effect their financial profits. 2. The use of insufficient evidence from studies, the lack of scientific correlation and the improper transcription of results from studies being used to make "the best" decisions in standardized tests and phonics instruction on reading skills. 3. The emphasis and funding for schools being put toward standardized tests and phonics instruction along with materials/products needed for them instead of other places that may be in more need.

This article brings to light what Metcalf describes as the "Bush Revolution" in education. After providing a brief history of education, referencing Horace Mann and John Dewey, Metcalf stresses education as a business, connecting McGraw (Publisher McGraw-Hill) and Bush. Bush changes the system and creates new standards in education, as a result new materials are then needed to implement his new education 'revolution.' Metcalf implies the situation is more about business between friends than actually worrying about educating children.

The author presents examples of policies that are "bright ideas that have backfired in the real world." Specifically, examples such as random drug testing in prisons, giving juvenile delinquents tours of prisons to scare them straight, and randomised controlled medical treatment trials. She points out that what many of these policy makers are lacking is research on evidence of effectiveness, and that policy makers and researchers need to be in dialogue with each other. "Stubborn ideology," as she calls it, is costing us money.

Jenal Austin December 2010 "Science Rules OK: Running Societies the Rational Way" This article discusses the importance of basing public policy on evidence found through appropriately- conducted research studies rather than on assumptions or "feel good" ideology. Unfortunately, due to the fact that politicians want to come across as confident and decisive, they often prefer a simple evaluation of policies that research may have found to be unbeneficial for society. "Rigorous evaluations are seen as threatening rather than supportive of better policy" and many people view the task as "laborious, slow, and expensive." Social policies are also often seen as harmless when, in fact, there has been evidence showing that poorly researched policies have increased drug use in prisons as well as the number of teens involved in car accidents. Large randomized trails are necessary to evaluate whether or not a program might work on the national scale. It is also important that researchers and policy makers communicate with one another and that governments utilize proven facts rather than clinging to idealistic visions.

This article discusses the use of large-scale randomized trials to evaluate social policy. For decades, policy makers have rolled out changes without taking the time to conduct research to determine if the idea would be effective. One reason policy makers shun trials is the reality that the trials and experiments do not always support the ideas or policies. Rather than taking the time to conduct trials, policy makers prefer to "act swiftly" and propose policy. The article references the efforts of abstinence education, Scared straight programs, drug testing in prison populations, and school driving programs as examples of policies that have not worked--the research and data suggest the programs are not effective, yet policy makers continue to support the efforts.

Julie's point about not taking the time is a good one. This article was somewhat shocking in that it highlighted just how poor the research is behind many of our public policies and programs. Policy makers and politicians rush to gain political capital by moving decisively when they have only a kernel of research in support of their claims, without taking the time or making an effort to test the findings or dig deeper. After a policy or program is in place, it is not in their best interests to support research which may disprove the efficacy of what they have put in place. This could all tie back to our educational system, to whether or not we teach solid critical thinking and research skills.

I found this article to be very interesting. My favorite part was the study done in schools that polled the most influential peers, informed them on dangers of smoking, and attempted to decrease smoking by reverse peer pressure. I think this was a great idea!!!

As a higher education employee, it's interesting to me to hear about what the new trends are in terms of programs at other universities compared with our own. This article both saddens and inspires me, because it discusses how the study of humanities may be in danger, because it is not considered "practical" and does not always lead to a definite career path. I am reminded of how some K-12 administrators are taking away programs in the arts, to free up more time for math and science, subjects that are considered more important because of statewide testing. The article inspires me, because it goes further, to mention what some specific colleges are doing to increase focus and enrollment in humanities fields, and how the colleges and universities are trying to hold on to these fields, despite the low enrollment. I would be interested to see how these techniques end up working, and how the schools plan on evaluating them.

This article is the start to ongoing research in Lexington Public Schools. It was brought to the superintendents attention that there is an over representation of METCO students in the special-ed program, meaning there is a high number of METCO students requiring special help in one or more subjects. The study uses data from standardized testing, surveys, and past research. The article proposes quite a few different recommendations of where the research should go from here.

Great Post, Nicole: I recently petitioned to be able to take a different course for my multi-cultural component, that actually addresses legal and procedural considerations for such misrepresentations. This article was very timely for me personally, as I would like to be able to foster positive changes so that minority students are not misplaced in special educational programs, which both does not serve their individual needs appropriately and it also detracts from the resources available to true "special needs" learning disabled students. More programs need to be implemented such as those recommended in this article that provide extensive tutoring, mentoring, summer academic support opportunities that are separate from "special education" programs. Mary Ann Fogarty Pessa