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PARCC's policy will be that students earn the "college readiness" determination by performing at level 4 on a 5-level test

Reaching that level on the language arts part of the exam will mean that students have "demonstrated the academic knowledge, skills, and practices necessary" to skip remedial classes and go directly into entry-level, credit-bearing courses in "college English composition, literature, and technical courses requiring college-level reading and writing."

college-readiness scores on the test will be set in such a way that students who score at that level—level 4—will have a 75 percent chance of earning a grade of C or better in those college courses.

The Flipped Classroom is NOT:A synonym for online videos. When most people hear about the flipped class all they think about are the videos.  It is the the interaction and the meaningful learning activities that occur during the face-to-face time that is most important.About replacing teachers with videos.An online course. Students working without structure.Students spending the entire class staring at a computer screen.Students working in isolation. 

The Flipped Classroom IS:A means to INCREASE interaction and personalized contact time between students and teachers.An environment where students take responsibility for their own learning.  A classroom where the teacher is not the "sage on the stage", but the "guide on the side".A blending of direct instruction with constructivist learning.A classroom where students who are absent due to illness or extra-curricular activities such as athletics or field-trips, don't get left behind.A class where content is permanently archived  for review or remediation.A class where all students are engaged in their learning.A place where all students can get a personalized education.

Laurel Trainor, director of the Institute for Music and the Mind at McMaster University in West Hamilton, Ontario, and colleagues compared preschool children who had taken music lessons with those who did not. Those with some training showed larger brain responses on a number of sound recognition tests given to the children. Her research indicated that musical training appears to modify the brain's auditory cortex.

Even a year or two of music training leads to enhanced levels of memory and attention when measured by the same type of tests that monitor electrical and magnetic impulses in the brain.

“We therefore hypothesize that musical training (but not necessarily passive listening to music) affects attention and memory, which provides a mechanism whereby musical training might lead to better learning across a number of domains," Trainor said.