Skip to main content

Home/ Social Studies/ Group items tagged Thomas Jefferson

Rss Feed Group items tagged

Filter: All | Bookmarks | Topics Simple Middle
Richard Kirschner

Separation of church and state in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views

en.wikipedia.org/...and_state_in_the_United_States

First Amendment - historical background

shared by Richard Kirschner on 20 Sep 10 - Cached
  • The separation of church and state is a legal and political principle derived from various documents of several of the Founders of the United States. The First Amendment to the United States Constitution reads "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . ." The modern concept is often credited to the writings of English philosopher John Locke, but the phrase "separation of church and state" is generally traced to an 1802 letter by Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptists, where Jefferson spoke of the combined effect of the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. His purpose in this letter was to assuage the fears of the Danbury, Connecticut Baptists, and so he told them that this wall had been erected to protect them. The metaphor was intended, as The U.S. Supreme Court has currently interpreted it since 1947, to mean that religion and government must stay separate for the benefit of both, including the idea that the government must not impose religion on Americans nor create any law requiring it. It has since been in several opinions handed down by the United States Supreme Court,[1] though the Court has not always fully embraced the principle.[2][3][4][5][6]
  • The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution (Amendment XIV) is one of the post-Civil War amendments, intended to secure rights for former slaves. It includes the due process and equal protection clauses among others. The amendment introduces the concept of incorporation of all relevant federal rights against the states. While it has not been fully implemented, the doctrine of incorporation has been used to ensure, through the Due Process Clause and Privileges and Immunities Clause, the application of most of the rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights to the states. The incorporation of the First Amendment establishment clause in the landmark case of Everson v. Board of Education has impacted the subsequent interpretation of the separation of church and state in regard to the state governments.[37] Although upholding the state law in that case, which provided for public busing to private religious schools, the Supreme Court held that the First Amendment establishment clause was fully applicable to the state governments. A more recent case involving the application of this principle against the states was Board of Education of Kiryas Joel Village School District v. Grumet (1994).
    • Richard Kirschner
      Richard Kirschner on 20 Sep 10
       
      An excellent recitation of the historical background of the First Amendment with references to the influence of the Church of England and patriots such as Patrick Henry & Thomas Paine. Excellent list of references. Important resource to keep for future reference.
  • Richard Kirschner on 20 Sep 10
     
    This is one of the very best websites I have ever found addressing the First Amendment and religion in the public schools. It deals with student prayers, official participation, teaching about religion, student dress, etc.
  • Adrea Lawrence on 04 Oct 10
     
    How is this site different from candst.tripod.com/...jnt-sta.htm? How might teachers use this site?
Richard Kirschner

Letter to the Danbury Baptist Association - 2 views

www.stephenjaygould.org/...jefferson_dba.html

Thomas Jefferson Separation of Church & State

shared by Richard Kirschner on 20 Sep 10 - No Cached
    • Richard Kirschner
      Richard Kirschner on 20 Sep 10
       
      Repudiates those who deny separation of church & state doctrine
  • Richard Kirschner on 20 Sep 10
     
    Letter by Thomas Jefferson affirming doctrine of separation of church and state.
  • Adrea Lawrence on 04 Oct 10
     
    How might teachers use this site?
jbdrury

Re-thinking Newsweek and U.S. News Rankings - 0 views

www.bethesdamagazine.com/...rethinking-rankings.php

school rankings achievement montgomery county newsweek U.S. News bethesda measuring top schools best schools

shared by jbdrury on 18 Sep 09 - Cached
  • Re-thinking the Rankings
  • B-CC had been ranked as the nation’s 64th best high school on the 2008 Newsweek list, but it was missing from U.S. News’ top 100. One parent e-mailed: “Should I be worried?”
  • In the 2009 Newsweek rankings, released in June, four county schools (Richard Montgomery, B-CC, Thomas S. Wootton and Winston Churchill) were ranked among the nation’s top 100, with two others (Walt Whitman and Walter Johnson) narrowly missing
  • ...31 more annotations...
    • jbdrury
      jbdrury on 18 Sep 09
       
      Not to detract from MCPS, but I have often wondered if the fact that the designer of the index happens to live in the Bethesda is at all a coincidence?
  • Most years, Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) has more schools in the top 100 of both lists than any other school system in the country
  • rankings validate that the school system is “seeing the benefits of providing the academic support that allows our students to aim high and achieve at the highest levels.
  • But do the rankings really mean much?
  • I feel obliged to question the validity of the methods used to rank high schools.
    • jbdrury
      jbdrury on 18 Sep 09
       
      This is the basic explanation for how Newsweek ranks its schools; interesting to note that it is based almost solely on a sort of "preparation for college" mindset
  • for ignoring graduation rates and achievement gaps among socioeconomic and ethnic segments.
    • jbdrury
      jbdrury on 18 Sep 09
       
      The author speaks directly with the designer of Newsweek's index
  • Mathews’ goal is to improve students’ academic preparation, especially in lower-and middle-income neighborhood schools. His solution is to expose more students to challenging course work, and he unapologetically describes his purpose as “advocacy as well as evaluation.
  • He says the Challenge Index’s key attributes make it the singular best measure of a school’s quality: It can be easily understood; it points directly to implementing positive change through rigorous course offerings; and it can be applied meaningfully to all schools—unlike quality evaluations based on traditional measures such as test scores, which, he says, are inherently biased toward schools in wealthier, upper-middle-class neighborhoods.
    • jbdrury
      jbdrury on 18 Sep 09
       
      As a side note; this is my former social studies teacher and the person I credit most with making me want to become a teacher
  • Walter Johnson Principal Christopher Garran
  • Critics
  • have attacked the Challenge Index for not effectively capturing what it purports to measure (school quality), in part because it doesn’t gauge student achievement, only the number of rigorous course exams taken.
  • Newsweek ranks schools based on the Challenge Index, which was developed by Washington Post education reporter (and Bethesda resident) Jay Mathews. A school’s Challenge Index score is the number of Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB) and Cambridge tests taken by all students in a school year divided by the number of graduating seniors. (AP courses are well-known; IB and Cambridge also consist of rigorous courses for which students can receive college credit. Like AP, their standardized exams are graded by outside examiners.)
    • jbdrury
      jbdrury on 18 Sep 09
       
      U.S. News also uses its own "college prep" index, but includes standardized test results, and takes socio-economic and racial differences into account
  • U.S. News’ approach
  • far more computationally complex
  • a school must do significantly better on standardized state English and math tests than statistically expected given its economic makeup; be in the top half of its state (approximately) in the performance of its minority students
  • “College Readiness” formula combines two components: the percentage of 12th-graders who had taken an AP or IB exam during or before their senior year; and the percentage who passed at least one exam—equivalent to an AP test score of 3 and an IB score of 4.
    • jbdrury
      jbdrury on 18 Sep 09
       
      He also directly quotes the manager of the U.S. News' index
  • U.S. News project, cites three ways its methodology is superior: “We measure success [tests passed]—not just quantity of tests taken. We factor in how well schools do in serving economically disadvantaged students and minorities. And we recognize schools within their respective state.”
  • The U.S. News rankings have been attacked by education experts for intermixing highly selective “elite” schools, such as Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Va.—currently their top-ranked school in the U.S.—with schools having open admissions
  • Unlike U.S. News, Mathews eliminates some academically elite schools, setting the cutoff at the level of the highest average SAT/ACT scores of any “normal enrollment” school in the country.
  • “It would be deceptive for us to put them [schools above this threshold] on this list [because] the Challenge Index has been designed to honor schools that have done the best job in persuading average students to take college-level courses and tests. It does not work for schools that have no, or almost no, average students.”
  • As of 2009, schools with AP exam pass rates lower than 10 percent (schools that would have made the list in previous years) have also been eliminated from the main Newsweek ranking. Most of these schools, which are typically located in low-income neighborhoods, have recently introduced their students to academically challenging courses as a form of “shock therapy.”
    • jbdrury
      jbdrury on 18 Sep 09
       
      A summary of the author's thoughts; pro's and con's of both methods
  • Just as the Challenge Index is too limited in its concept of best schools, the U.S. News procedures try to cover too much. The crux of the problem is combining three essentially different criteria (college readiness, overcoming economic disadvantage and minimizing ethnic group disparities) into one ranking. Schools that excel in one aren’t necessarily those that excel in the other(s). Some schools that do the greatest job of preparing their minority students might not have total-school achievement scores that are among the best. Other schools characterized by superlative overall college readiness might score only slightly above average relative to their economic profile. In trying to incorporate “economic disadvantage” and the reduction of ethnic group (minority) achievement gaps together with schoolwide high achievement, the U.S. News ranking risks confounding different educational objectives. Depth and breadth of performance, and exceeding expectations, should be reported separately, rather than conjoined. Separate rankings would be easier to understand, more informative and less disputable—although perhaps less likely to help sell magazines.
  • Several principals, including Whitman’s Goodwin, noted how nonacademic programs that help students succeed and are a huge part of some students’ lives (arts, music, sports, civic activities, etc.) are not examined.
  • comparing large and small schools can be misleading
  • eferring to the many qualitative features that go into making a great school, Doran says, “The rankings are measuring the brain of the school—not the heart of the school.”
  • jbdrury on 18 Sep 09
     
    Having grown up in Bethesda, I am well aware of the preoccupation with the ranking of U.S. schools. This article shares some insight into how two of the more popular (or circulated) ranking systems come up with their results.
Lindsay Andreas

Downloadable Media @ your library: District of Columbia - 0 views

overdrive.dclibrary.org/...default.htm

technology ipod audiobooks mp3s ebooks

shared by Lindsay Andreas on 27 Sep 09 - No Cached
  • Now Playing - OverDrive MP3 Audiobooks!
    • Lindsay Andreas
      Lindsay Andreas on 27 Sep 09
       
      Some notable audio/mp3/ipod selections from the DC Public Library that I feel would be great for Social Studies, specifically. The Civil War (Shelby Foote) He is considered a top scholar, along with James Mcphereson. If there are two names you should be familiar with for Civil War scholarship, they are it! My Brother Sam is Dead. You may have read this when studying the American Revolution, a great way to incorporate literature into the study of history. Thomas Jefferson & His Time (Multiple Volumes) TJ, enough said!
  • Newest Video Additions
    • Lindsay Andreas
      Lindsay Andreas on 27 Sep 09
       
      For the visual learners of your class. Some PBS Home video selections, a very reputable education source.
  • Learning a Language:
    • Lindsay Andreas
      Lindsay Andreas on 27 Sep 09
       
      This doesn't relate to Social Studies directly but I think it is a pretty cool feature, language tapes can be really expensive, why not utilize a free library membership?
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Audiobooks
    • Lindsay Andreas
      Lindsay Andreas on 27 Sep 09
       
      Why fight it? It is well accepted in the education field that students learn in multiple ways. Specifically, students with learning disabilities should also be kept in mind. I know we are studying to be general educators but you will be dealing with IEPs and a working knowledge of special education must not be overlooked.
  • Lindsay Andreas on 27 Sep 09
     
    I was at the National Book Festival yesterday, it was wonderful, great resources overall. They were really pushing eBooks and audiobook downloads and I think it is an important education trend we need to be aware of. The kids are becoming so tech-oriented, why fight it? We need to use it to our advantage.
Lindsay Andreas

Constitutional Convention - 0 views

www.uen.org/...preview

constitutional convention lesson plan template

shared by Lindsay Andreas on 30 Oct 09 - Cached
  • How did the delegates to the Convention resolve their differences of opinion through compromise?
    • Lindsay Andreas
      Lindsay Andreas on 30 Oct 09
       
      This is an excellent essential question for an entire unit because you can tie this directly back to prior lessons on the Continental Congress.
  • Assess the foundations and principles that led to the development of the Constitution.
    • Lindsay Andreas
      Lindsay Andreas on 30 Oct 09
       
      This is for Utah, but I would assume a similar objective/standard would be covered in DCPS.
  • A biographical list of our founding fathers.
    • Lindsay Andreas
      Lindsay Andreas on 30 Oct 09
       
      The National Constitution Center has an excellent biographical list of all of those that attended the convention, you can search by interactive map. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams were not at the Constitutional Convention, as they were serving as ambassadors in Europe.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • This lesson should be taught after the Articles of Confederation are taught. Students should have a knowledge of what the Articles of Confederation were and why they failed to work.
    • Lindsay Andreas
      Lindsay Andreas on 30 Oct 09
       
      This is a time when chronological teaching is most helpful because the Article of Confederations is the entire basis for the Constitution and that connection should be a main emphasis. The movie 1776 is an excellent way to teach the Articles because it is a musical, which helps the students remember the people, which can be confusing. It is also a way to incorporate multiple intelligences.
  • Make sure to arrange groups so that struggling students will be included into stronger groups. If a large number of these students are present, the entire activity can be done in a group discussion format.
    • Lindsay Andreas
      Lindsay Andreas on 30 Oct 09
       
      Since we had our whole discussion about differentiation recently, I thought it was helpful that the lesson planners added a separate section for this.
  • Lindsay Andreas on 30 Oct 09
     
    I will be teaching the Era of the Constitution this upcoming Wednesday. When I was in US history in high school we did a cool simulation where we played the roles of the convention's members and I thought this was a pretty good lesson plan for doing such an activity.
1 - 5 of 5
Showing 20▼ items per page