Is anyone else having trouble opening this? I cannot get the link to open.

I had a similar reaction to Lindsay's reaction. You do hear about racial disparities in the CJ system but not so much schools. I figured there would be a slightly higher rate for getting suspended but not 3.5 times more. That was very shocking. That did not happen at my school at all. Tiffany mentioned segregation in the cafeteria-I never experienced that at all. Even interracial relationships were extremely common at my school. Discrimination like this must be made more public. If it is not, the common people cannot do anything about it if they are not educated on the issue.

As a future educator, this article was terrifying. Not only does it make me question the ethics of the students, it makes me question how these professors don't recognize it. I can understand not noticing in a large undergraduate class were there are multiple TAs and the paper is maybe ten pages. However, I cannot fathom how Masters and Ph.D students get away with it. I communicate with my mentor/advisor for my Masters multiple times in a week (text, phone calls, emails, meetings). There is no way to avoid it. If students actually type like this, how does a professor not notice when they turn in decent papers? It really doesn't make sense. I don't doubt this story at all because I have heard of these companies. It is upsetting to me that professors are not careful enough to notice or do not spend enough time with their students. Every Masters class I have had, I have had to email them at least once during the course of the semester. In higher education, the experience becomes more personal than undergrad.
I also did not find it shocking that so many students do not know how to write properly. I moved numerous times when I was little that I never actually had a grammar class. I know I don't write with perfect grammar but it is a learning process.

I wrote my paper on women's education and why it is important. Below is all the sources I used! Hope it is helpful :)

Coontz, S. (2012, February 11). The M.R.S. and the Ph.D. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/12/opinion/sunday/marriage-suits-educated-women.html?_r=1&scp=5&sq=female education&st=cse

Diaw, C. (2008). Quality and gender equality in education: what Have we learned from FAWE's fifteen year experience?. In M. Tembon & F. Lucia (Eds.), Girls' Education in the 21st Century (pp. 253-267). Washington, DC: The World Bank.

Education. Women and HIV/AIDS: Confronting the Crisis. Retrieved from http://www.unfpa.org/hiv/women/report/chapter5.html

Hanushek, E. A. (2008). Schooling, gender equity, and economic outcomes. In M. Tembon & F. Lucia (Eds.), Girls' Education in the 21st Century (pp. 23-39). Washington, DC: The World Bank.

Mundy, L. (2012, March 12). Why men are attracted to high-earning women. The New York Times.

Nash, M. (2005). Women's Education in the United States. New York, NY: Palgrace MacMallin.

Patrinos, H. A. (2008). Returns to Education: The Gender Perspective. In M. Tembon & F. Lucia (Eds.), Girls' Education in the 21st Century (pp. 53-66). Washington, DC: The World Bank.

Sadker, D. M., Sadker, M., Zittleman, K. R., & Sadker, M. (2009). Still failing at fairness: How gender bias cheats girls and boys in school and what we can do about it. New York: Scribner.

Stark, C. (2012, March 8). By the Numbers: Women's Progress (or not) Around the World. CNN World. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/08/world/women-numbers/index.html?iref=allsearch

The quote from this book is definitely applicable to today's society. There is always a comparison of American students to Asian and European countries. Even Asian students that are American are often assumed to be smarter; it is a part of their stereotype. In this article, I did not expect Finland to be the top country in education. I like that their system includes a national curriculum. I thought it was strange that they did not have gifted classes, but one of the bullet points was, "Diagnostic testing of students is used early and frequently. If a student is in need of extra help, intensive intervention is provided." I thought that this was a very interesting concept. It would be wonderful if we could adapt a similar practice in the US. Unfortunately, there are many factors that could prevent this, such as, students needing to leave immediately after school to catch the bus. There were other great ideas like watching other classes for professional development. There may be other factors that come into play for why the US in ranked around the middle. The US is very diverse and mobile. The high mobility of our citizens certainly comes into play. This article was very interesting and I think certain practices could be adopted to improve the curriculum here.

The parallel that this group made with Indians to special education is very interesting. In today's society this is still a prevalent issue. In regards to the native american indians, many of them do still have special school on reservations. This is happening to the special needs children. This is of course a "hot-button" topic; however, it definitely is worth the debate. I truly believe that we underestimate our children. Children can be so much more accepting and less judgmental than adults. I think that inclusion would help with acceptance and would reduce future judgement. In the article I thought that Peter Farrell described this very well: "What there is evidence of is that if children with special needs mix with others, it helps to make people in society more accepting of difference." There is so much truth to this statement. There will always be the bad apples that make fun of other kids, but that occurs whether there is a special needs child in the class or not. Many children, especially little girls, develop almost mother like qualities and protect other classmates.