Search

Assessment "as," "for," and "of" learning complement effective curricular and instructional practices, however, the complexities of assessment for multilingual students are too-often overlooked and misunderstood. What if multilingual learners, teachers, and educational leaders all had opportunities to plan for and use assessment data in multiple languages? Imagine the linguistic, academic, and cultural reservoirs we could tap to highlight what our multilingual learners know and can do. "Assessment in Multiple Languages: A Handbook for School and District Leaders" shows how superintendents, principals, directors, coaches, and other educational leaders can more accurately portray the academic, language, and social-emotional development of multilingual students. As a companion to "Classroom Assessment in Multiple Languages," this book illustrates how the assessment cycle unfolds at school and district levels. Together the two books provide comprehensive guidance for enacting linguistically and culturally sustainable assessment in multiple languages in K-12 settings. Grounded in leading-edge research, with an emphasis on instilling equity and social justice in assessment practices, this book: (1) justifies the legitimacy of assessment in multiple languages; (2) showcases examples from federal to classroom levels; (3) provides practical guidance and tools for school-wide and district level assessment; and (4) applies to any and all programs with multilingual learners whether in dual-language immersion, bilingual, or monolingual settings. Written by leading multilingual education and assessment authority Margo Gottlieb, this guide will help educational leaders highlight the true capabilities of multilingual learners. [For "Classroom Assessment in Multiple Languages: A Handbook for Teachers," see ED614213.]

What if multilingual learners had the freedom to interact in more than one language with their peers during classroom assessment? What if multilingual learners and their teachers in dual language settings had opportunities to use assessment data in multiple languages to make decisions? Just imagine the rich linguistic, academic, and cultural reservoirs we could tap as we determine what our multilingual learners know and can do. Thankfully, Margo Gottlieb is here to provide concrete and actionable guidance on how to create assessment systems that enable understanding of "the whole student," not just that fraction of the student who is only visible as an English learner. With "Classroom Assessment in Multiple Languages" as your guide, you'll: (1) Better understand the rationale for and evidence on the value and advantages of classroom assessment in multiple languages; (2) Add to your toolkit of classroom assessment practices in one or multiple languages; (3) Be more precise and effective in your assessment of multilingual learners by embedding assessment as, for, and of learning into your instructional repertoire; (4) Recognize how social-emotional, content, and language learning are all tied to classroom assessment; and (5) Guide multilingual learners in having voice and choice in the assessment process. Despite the urgent need, assessment for multilingual learners is generally tucked into a remote chapter, if touched upon at all in a book; the number of resources narrows even more when multiple languages are brought into play. Here at last is that single resource on how educators and multilingual learners can mutually value languages and cultures in instruction and assessment throughout the school day and over time. We encourage you to get started right away.

This curriculum guide discusses civic responsibility, how it is tied to service learning, how faculty can integrate concepts and exercises in a practical way, and how faculty can assess the development of civic responsibility in their students. Civic responsibility is defined here as active participation in the public life of a community, in an informed, committed, and constructive manner, with a focus on the common good. The five chapters in the guide are as follows: (1) "The Need for Civic Responsibility in Learning"; (2) "Defining Civic Responsibility"; (3) "The Practice of Civic Responsibility"; (4) "Assessing Civic Responsibility"; and (5) "A Final Reflection." The five appendices include: (A) films, quotations, articles; (B) reflection resources, containing nine sources; (C) Reflection Exercises; (D) bibliography, containing 11 sources; and (E) organizations and Web sites, containing 16 sources. The document's three tables include: Essential Civic Competencies and Skills; Service Learning Activities; and Civic Responsibility Assessment Rubric. (Contains 37 additional references.) (NB)

Should babies sleep alone in cribs, or in bed with parents? Is talking to babies useful, or a waste of time? "A World of Babies" provides different answers to these and countless other child-rearing questions, precisely because diverse communities around the world hold drastically different beliefs about parenting. While celebrating that diversity, the book also explores the challenges that poverty, globalization and violence pose for parents. Fully updated for the twenty-first century, this edition features a new introduction and eight new or revised case studies that directly address contemporary parenting challenges, from China and Peru to Israel and the West Bank. Written as imagined advice manuals to parents, the creative format of this book brings alive a rich body of knowledge that highlights many models of baby-rearing--each shaped by deeply held values and widely varying cultural contexts. Parenthood may never again seem a matter of "common sense." This book: (1) Addresses the implications of the most urgent challenges of the twenty-first century--racism, religious intolerance, immigration, poverty, educational inequities and environmental degradation--for the lives of parents and children and their wider communities, offering a realistic sense of the challenges facing real families living in the real world; (2) Features a wide variety and diverse set of parenting practices that represent communities across religions (Protestantism, Catholicism, Judaism, Islam, Confucianism and animism) and world areas (North America, South America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa); and (3) Case studies range from communities facing desperate poverty to those that enjoy relative prosperity; in all cases, the chapters analyze the economic circumstances of the families, communities and nations for their implications on childrearing agendas, opportunities and constraints. The following are contributors to this book: Michelle Johnson, Erin Raffety, Bree Akesson, Deborah Golden, Sirad Shirdon, Kate Grim-Feinberg, and Mariah Schug. [For the first edition, see ED451944.]

Teachers of English language learners in 21st-century classrooms face a daunting task. The nature of language is complex, learners' needs are diverse, academic content challenges students, and the demand for accountability is an educational reality. "Paper to Practice: Using the TESOL English Language Proficiency Standards in PreK-12 Classrooms" offers sound advice and practical steps for confronting these challenges. As a companion to TESOL's 2006 "PreK-12 English Language Proficiency Standards, Paper to Practice" illustrates how the TESOL standards can function as a starting point for action in all classrooms serving English language learners. "Paper to Practice" is organized in two sections. Section I, on how to approach the standards, analyzes the language of school, elaborates on the components of the TESOL English language proficiency standards, and examines how the standards exemplify the academic language required for student achievement. Section II, on how to implement standards-based instruction and assessment, encourages collaboration among educators in their efforts to use the English language proficiency standards in developing meaningful curricula and instructional practices for English language learners. In each chapter, Guiding Questions stimulate discussion, Vignettes contextualize the content in a variety of settings, Tasks spark new ideas, and Reflect and Respond sections encourage application of the key themes. The book's format is ideal for use in personal study as well as pre-service or in-service workshops. "Paper to Practice" offers a wealth of information and ideas for educators seeking to infuse the TESOL English language proficiency standards into curriculum, instruction, and assessment. By working together to implement a standards-based language curriculum framework, teachers can contribute to a cohesive and equitable educational system for all.

People living in different parts of the world hold diverse beliefs about the nature and the nurturing of infants. Celebrating that diversity and based on the research of anthropologists, psychologists, and historians, this book presents information on child care from seven societies around the world, past and present, illustrating how the childrearing customs of any given society make sense when understood within the context of that society. The seven societies include the Puritans of seventeenth century Massachusetts and six contemporary societies: the Beng of Ivory Coast, the Balinese of Indonesia, Muslim villagers in Turkey, the Warlpiri (an Australian Aborigine group), the Fulani of West and Central Africa, and the Ifaluk people of Micronesia. Following an introductory chapter, each chapter is written in the style of a child care manual. Each "manual" starts with a brief biography of its fictive author, followed by advice to prospective and new parents on a wide range of topics. The chapters are: (1) "If Dr. Spock Were Born in Bali: Raising a World of Babies" (Judy S. DeLoache and Alma Gottlieb), focusing on the challenges of caring for children, cultural foundations of infant care practices, and valued personal characteristics; (2) "A Parenting Manual, with Words of Advice for Puritan Mothers" (Debbie Reese); (3) "Luring Your Child into This Life: A Beng Path for Infant Care" (Alma Gottlieb); (4) "Gift from the Gods: A Balinese Guide to Early Child Rearing" (Marissa Diener); (5) "Making Babies in a Turkish Village" (Carol Delaney); (6) "Infants of the Dreaming: A Warlpiri Guide to Child Care" (Sophia L. Pierroutsakos); (7) "The View from the 'Wuro': A Guide to Child Rearing for Fulani Parents" (Michelle C. Johnson); and (8) "Never Leave Your Little One Alone: Raising an Ifaluk Child" (Huynh-Nhu Le). The book concludes with citations and sources cited. (KB)

Reviews two collections of works on teacher education in various countries. The first, which examines inequality and racism in teacher education and attempts at multicultural reform, displays varied methods and quality and provides no comparative framework. The second presents eight case studies addressing common issues in teacher education reform and criticizes assumptions about such comparative studies. (SV)

This book provides students and scholars with an introduction to Korean education and the dynamics of interchange between the educational system and the rapidly changing Korean society. Attention is given only to the Republic of Korea (South Korea) and includes only English language works of reference. The book contains six chapters: (1) "Historical Roots of Modern Education"; (2) "The Educational System: Structure, Content, and Administration"; (3) "Transnational Transfer of Knowledge and Its Influences on Korean Education"; (4) "Educational Policy Making and Planning"; (5) "Education, Economic and Social Change"; and (6) "Epilogue." (EH)

This book, a major purpose of which is to attempt to identify how different kinds of youth will be reacting to different aspects of the social system in the years ahead, includes 15 essays: "Black Brainpower: Characteristics of Bright Black Youth," D.J. Watley; "Bright Achievers: Their Characteristics and Some Expected Behavior Patterns," D.J. Watley; "Coming of Age in a Racist Society: The Whitening of America," Doris Y. Wilkinson; "Youth Discontent and the Nature of Work," H.L. Sheppard; "What Do Young Women Want?", E.B. Sanders; "Dionysus--Child of Tomorrow: Notes on Postindustrial Youth," L. Langman; "The Future of Black Youth," N. Hare; "The Family is Dead--Long Live the Family," N.L. Gaylin; "Youth and the Drug Crisis," J. Fort, M.D.; "Youth, Sex, and the Future," J.H. Gagnon and W. Simon; "Adult Control in Family and School: Public Opinion in Historical and Comparative Perspective," G. Elder; "The Draft, Military Service, and National Unity: A Contribution to the Debate," J.G. Bachman; "Rural Youth: Current Status and Prognosis," W.P. Kuvlesky; "The Real Generation Gap: A Speculation on the Meaning and Implications of the Generation Gap," L.R. Simmons; and, "Implications for the Future," D. Gottlieb. (JM)

A chapter from the book "Bloom's Critical Interpretation: 1984--George Orwell, Updated Edition" is presented. It analyzes the political and religious concepts in George Orwell's novel "Nineteen Eighty-Four." In his representation, Richard Rees asserts that in creating analogy between political and religious concepts, Orwell's purpose is satirical as he infuses religious metaphors into a secular context that suggest the system's corruption.

As a better understanding of cutaneous diseases has been gained, more specific, targeted therapies have emerged. More recently, many of the T-cell immune mediated inflammatory changes seen in psoriasis have been elucidated, leading to the development of biologics that specifically act on immunological mechanisms, which are thought to be pathogenic in psoriatic lesions. By acting on specific immunological actions in the large cascade that results in psoriasis, many of the systemic toxicities that accompanied older treatments such as methotrexate and cyclosporinemay be avoided. Currently, there are three biologics approved in the United States for the treatment of psoriasis including alefacept, efalizumab, and etanercept, with several others currently under clinical investigation. A summary of the biologics currently used for the treatment of psoriasis can be found in Table 9.1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whereas most strategies in proteomics deal with changes in protein levels, posttranslational modifications often represent pathological consequences at the molecular level without changes in abundance and, therefore represent a critical phenomenon to study. The present report elucidates an approach to studying one such posttranslational modification, phosphorylation, which is an important event in a variety of signaling cascades initiated in the heart in response to physiological and pathological stimuli. Comparison of phosphorylation profiles in different conditions, including drug treatments, receptor stimulation or blockade, and so forth, may lead to identification of relevant targets of signal transduction cascades. Furthermore, it may be possible to devise similar schemes to detect the subset of proteins modified by ubiquitinylation, lipid acylation, and so forth, and to compare differential patterns. Phosphorylation of mitochondrial targets is increasingly being recognized. Mitochondria are critical targets of a number of signaling pathways and therefore it is important to develop suitable methods to detect phosphorylation of mitochondrial targets. One approach is to perform in vitro phosphorylation in a reconstituted system of cytosol and mitochondria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a Proportional Representation (PR) electoral system it is assumed that seats are apportioned to the different electoral districts/states according to the corresponding voters' distribution. In a previous paper we proposed a MILP (Mixed Integer Linear Programming) model to apportion the seats in the European Parliament (EP). Since the exact solution to the problem is not computationally efficient, we have designed a hybrid metaheuristic algorithm based on Variable Neighborhood Search (VNS) and Tabu Search (TS). The proposed approach takes into account the existing situation, guaranteeing a minimum number of seats, independently of the population size of each member. The model is illustrated with actual data and its results are compared with the present apportionment. The results show that the proposed approach can significantly improve the proportionality of the present apportionment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a detailed study of a recursive search algorithm for different optimization problems. Although the algorithm has been originally developed for a project scheduling problem with financial objectives, we show that it can be extended to many other application areas and therefore, can serve as a sub-procedure for various optimization problems. The contribution of the paper is threefold. First, we present a hybrid recursive search procedure for the project scheduling problem with net present value maximization and compare it with state-of-the-art procedures by means of computational tests. Second, we show how the procedure can be adapted to two other application areas: project scheduling with work continuity minimization and the open pit mining problem. Last, we highlight some future research areas where this hybrid procedure might bring a promising contribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Variable Neighbourhood Search (VNS) is one of the most recent metaheuristics used for solving combinatorial optimization problems in which a systematic change of neighbourhood within a local search is carried out. In this paper, a variable neighbourhood search algorithm is proposed for Job Shop Scheduling (JSS) problem with makespan criterion. The results gained by VNS algorithm are presented and compared with the best known results in literature. It is concluded that the VNS implementation is better than many recently published works with respect to the quality of the solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An original approach, termed is proposed to hybridize Evolutionary Algorithms (EAs) with Operational Research (OR) methods in the domain of Temporal Planning Problems (TPPs). Whereas standard Memetic Algorithms use local search methods to improve the evolutionary solutions, and thus fail when the local method stops working on the complete problem, the approach splits the problem at hand into several, hopefully easier, sub-problems, and can thus solve globally problems that are intractable when directly fed into deterministic OR algorithms. But the most prominent advantage of the approach is that it immediately opens up an avenue for multi-objective optimization, even though the OR method that is used is single-objective. Proof of concept approach on the standard (single-objective) Zeno transportation benchmark is given, and a small original multi-objective benchmark is proposed in the same Zeno framework to assess the multi-objective capabilities of the proposed methodology, a breakthrough in Temporal Planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many applications involve matching two graphs in order to identify their common features and compute their similarity. In this paper, we address the problem of computing a graph similarity measure based on a multivalent graph matching and which is generic in the sense that other well known graph similarity measures can be viewed as special cases of it. We propose and compare two different kinds of algorithms: an Ant Colony Optimization based algorithm and a Reactive Search. We compare the efficiency of these two algorithms on two different kinds of difficult graph matching problems and we show that they obtain complementary results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Combinatorial optimization problems with multiple objectives are, in general, more realistic representations of practical situations than their counterparts with a single-objective. The bi-objective minimum spanning tree problem is a NP-hard problem with applications in network design. In this paper a memetic algorithm is presented to solve this problem. A computational experiment compares the proposed approach with AESSEA, a known algorithm of the literature. The comparison of the algorithms is done with basis on the binary additive (-indicator. The results show that the proposed algorithm consistently produces better solutions than the other method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the newly developed core concept for the Multidimensional Knapsack Problem (MKP) which is an extension of the classical concept for the one-dimensional case. The core for the multidimensional problem is defined in dependence of a chosen efficiency function of the items, since no single obvious efficiency measure is available for MKP. An empirical study on the cores of widely-used benchmark instances is presented, as well as experiments with different approximate core sizes. Furthermore we describe a memetic algorithm and a relaxation guided variable neighborhood search for the MKP, which are applied to the original and to the core problems. The experimental results show that given a fixed run-time, the different metaheuristics as well as a general purpose integer linear programming solver yield better solution when applied to approximate core problems of fixed size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider scheduling heuristics for batching machines from semiconductor manufacturing. A batch is a collection of jobs that are processed at the same time on the same machine. The processing time of a batch is given by the identical processing time of the jobs within one incompatible family. We are interested in minimizing total weighted tardiness and makespan at the same time. In order to solve this problem, i.e. generate a Pareto-front, we suggest a multiobjective genetic algorithm. We present results from computational experiments on stochastically generated test instances that show the good solution quality of the suggested approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As shown in recent researches, in a distribution system, ignoring routes when locating depots may overestimate the overall system cost. The Location Routing Problem (LRP) overcomes this drawback dealing simultaneously with location and routing decisions. This paper presents a memetic algorithm with population management (MAPM) to solve the LRP with capacitated routes and depots. MAPM is a very recent form of memetic algorithm in which the diversity of a small population of solutions is controlled by accepting a new solution if its distance to the population exceeds a given threshold. The method is evaluated on three sets of instances, and compared to other heuristics and a lower bound. The preliminary results are quite promising since the MAPM already finds the best results on several instances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes an evolutionary algorithm (EA) that is applied to the traveling salesman problem (TSP). Existing approximation methods to address the TSP known to be state-of-the-art heuristics almost exclusively utilize Lin-Kernighan local search (LKLS) and its variants. We propose an EA that does not use LKLS, and demonstrate that it is comparable with these heuristics even though it does not use them. The proposed EA uses edge assembly crossover (EAX) that is known to be an efficient and effective crossover for solving TSPs. We first propose a modified EAX algorithm that can be executed more efficiently than the original, which is 2-7 times faster. We then propose a selection model that can efficiently maintain population diversity at negligible computational cost. The edge entropy measure is used as an indicator of population diversity. The proposed method called EAX-1AB(ENT) is applied to TSP benchmarks up to instances of 13509 cities. Experimental results reveal that EAX-1AB(ENT) with a population of 200 can almost always find optimal solutions effectively in most TSP benchmarks up to instances of 5915 cities. In the experiments, a previously proposed EAs using EAX can find an optimal solution of usa13509 with reasonable computational cost due to the fast EAX algorithm proposed in this paper. We also demonstrate that EAX-1AB(ENT) is comparable to well-known LKLS methods when relatively small populations such as 30 are used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present a scatter search algorithm for the well-known nurse scheduling problem (NSP). This problem aims at the construction of roster schedules for nurses taking both hard and soft constraints into account. The objective is to minimize the total preference cost of the nurses and the total penalty cost from violations of the soft constraints. The problem is known to be NP-hard. The contribution of this paper is threefold. First, we are, to the best of our knowledge, the first to present a scatter search algorithm for the NSP. Second, we investigate two different types of solution combination methods in the scatter search framework, based on four different cost elements. Last, we present detailed computational experiments on a benchmark dataset presented recently, and solve these problem instances under different assumptions. We show that our procedure performs consistently well under many different circumstances, and hence, can be considered as robust against case-specific constraints. Keywords: meta-heuristics; scatter search; nurse scheduling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We take a relation-algebraic view on the formulation of evolutionary algorithms in discrete search spaces. First, we show how individuals and populations can be represented as relations and formulate some standard mutation and crossover operators for this representation using relation-algebra. Evaluating a population with respect to their constraints seems to be the most costly step in one generation for many important problems. We show that the evaluation process for a given population can be sped up by using relation-algebraic expressions in the process. This is done by examining the evaluation of possible solutions for three of the best-known NP-hard combinatorial optimization problems on graphs, namely the vertex cover problem, the computation of maximum cliques, and the determination of a maximum independent set. Extending the evaluation process for a given population to the evaluation of the whole search space we get exact methods for the considered problems, which allow to evaluate the quality of solutions obtained by evolutionary algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses minimizing makespan by genetic algorithm (GA) for scheduling jobs with non-identical sizes on a single batch processing machine. We propose two different genetic algorithms based on different encoding schemes. The first one is a sequence based GA (SGA) that generates random sequences of jobs and applies the batch first fit (BFF) heuristic to group the jobs. The second one is a batch based hybrid GA (BHGA) that generates random batches of jobs and ensures feasibility through using knowledge of the problem. A pairwise swapping heuristic (PSH) based on the problem characteristics is hybridized with BHGA that has the ability of steering efficiently the search toward the optimal or near optimal schedules. Computational results show that BHGA performs considerably well compared with a modified lower bound and significantly outperforms the SGA and a simulated annealing (SA) approach addressed in literature. In comparison with a constructive heuristic named FFLPT, BHGA also shows its superiority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We introduce a novel representation for the graph colouring problem, called the Integer Merge Model, which aims to reduce the time complexity of an algorithm. Moreover, our model provides useful information for guiding heuristics as well as a compact description for algorithms. To verify the potential of the model, we use it in dsatur, in an evolutionary algorithm, and in the same evolutionary algorithm extended with heuristics. An empiricial investigation is performed to show an increase in efficiency on two problem suites , a set of practical problem instances and a set of hard problem instances from the phase transition. Keywords: graph colouring, representation, heuristics, merge model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]