Standardized Testing Essay examples -- Standardized Testing Essays

Standardized testing is used practically worldwide for all sorts of various criterion. A standardized test could be used for getting into a top of the line college, or to see if you meet the requirements for a job. Such tests include the well known ACTs and SATs. There are many different ways that standardized tests can be graded. Norm-Referenced, and Criterion-Referenced forms of grading are just a couple of the types of tests. Tests can also be easily misused and are often protested.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Often times in order to persue a certain career, before you are employed it is necessary to see how you rate in comparison to the company?s standards. If you were to, for instance, become a pizza maker for Pizza Hut, they may give you a test in order to make sure that you make the pizza according to their standards. In order to be a successful business and keep customers coming back for more, there has to be an order to the way all things are processed. If a customer were to come in one day and get a large pepperoni pizza, and there was a certain number of pepperonis on the pizza, they will expect that to be the same every time. The number of pepperonis on a pizza is a standard number. Standard meaning a degree or level of requirement, excellence, or attainment (www.Dictionary.com). The company may show you how to make all the types of pizza to the standards that they have preset, then have you make the pizzas they have shown you the same way. If the standard is eighty pepperonis on a large pizza, then you will be required to put eighty pepperonis on the pizza. If the standard amount of sauce used on the pizza is one ladle full, then you would use one ladle full of sauce. Standards are set in stone until later possible being re-evaluated and changed. Until such an event happens however, standards will stay the same.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  If on a test, you are asked to add two and two together. The answer you attain is always going to be four, because that is the set standard. Two plus two does not equal five simply because standards say it does not. Standards are used so that everything stays in order. ?Academic standards are clear written expectations of what every child should know and be able to do at specific grade levels. In Wisconsin, the standards were written for English/Language Arts, Math. Social... ...g and test preparation is skyrocketing. Lots of people feel that tests are biased towards those of different races and incomes. There have been many walkouts and even sites completely dedicated to ending testing. One of those sites is www.NoMoreTests.com. On their site you will find examples of walkouts and reasons why to stop standardized testing. You can even print out fliers and get free anti-test bumperstickers. (Examples of walkouts and other information on reasons why to oppose standardized testing, can be found in the NoMoreTests packet.)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The battle between whether standardized testing is necessary or not will more than likely continue for many years to come. There continues to be groups both supporting tests and groups trying to bring a stop to testing altogether. With more and more schools basing graduation on standardized test scores, and the never ending controversy on bias in testing, the battle continues. The money spent for preparation and the stress many students receive is undeniably growing and it is not known where this situation will be in the years to come.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  

Human Trafficking Essay

Known as the â€Å"invisibles† or â€Å"modern-day slaves†, the human trafficking trade is the fastest growing criminal trade in the U.S. and one of the most profitable industries in the world. It is global in nature, existing throughout the world, with traffickers coercing men, women and children of all races and circumstances. Approximately 800,000 to 900,000 victims are trafficked every year of which 100,000 are reportedly children sold into the sex trade. The United States is estimated to have 200,000 slaves, living in our cities seemingly pursuing the American dream. It is easy to understand why this trade is growing so rapidly if you look at our basic human nature and market conditions. Traffikers coerce their victims by promising them whatever they desire – be it, a trip to the US, education for their kids, an escape from their families. In return, the victims are placed into servitude as household domestics, escorts, or laborers at small businesses. Victims are the cheap labor needed to drive the market and the traffickers are the owners making all the payments and profits. Sometimes the most innocent of situations can lead into this trade. One of the stories from the National Human Trafficking Resource Center hotline tells how a girl, sixteen years old, met a man at her local mall who offered her a job at a restaurant. This seems like a plausible occurrence right? Well, it wasn’t. Instead of waiting tables and taking orders, she was forced to sell sex in a hotel room. So, what can I do as an average American teen presumably untouched by this horrible slavery? After all, I am very aware of stranger dangers and I don’t live in a third world country. Well. there are many easy ways to make an impact. You can encourage local newspapers, magazines and television  stations to focus on this topic. You can go and volunteer with organizations trying to impose stiffer penalties on traffikers. It’s even as easy as keeping an eye out in your everyday life – it exists all around us, open your eyes and ask yourself†¦what is wrong with this picture? Maybe the best advice I can give is to look at this from our Catholic values perspective – where is my compassion for people in need and the courage to challenge unfair practices. What does it say about me as a human if I allow a ten year old girl to work in a brothel? And what about Maria, the maid next door, who never leaves the house and works till 10 every night, does she not deserve the same freedoms as I? Yes, it is probably easier to ignore or choose not to engage, but where does that leave our humanity? To really abolish these practices, we have to care and question and be accountable. Human trafficking is wrong and we as the future generation of America need to step up and make a difference. People are not for sale. http://www.gracehavenhouse.org/how-to-help/24-fight-human-trafficking/

How far were Mao’s agricultural policies responsible for the scale of the famine? Essay

Mao’s agricultural policies could certainly be seen as responsible for the scale of the famine or at least as a huge factor contributing towards it. Other factors, such as the conspiracy of silence, bad weather and withholding information by peasants and government officials were also partly responsible for the scale of the famine; however Mao’s policies played the biggest role in causing the scale of the famine. Collectivisation was the first agricultural policy taken on by Mao which was unsupported by the peasants in the countryside, who were the majority of the population. The policy contributed hugely to the scale of the famine as it involved joining peasant families together to farm collectively rather than individually and then sharing the food produced with the rest of the community. This, in theory, was a good idea; if the peasants worked together they could share knowledge and potentially grow more food. However, they didn’t like the policy as it meant, regardless of how much they grew individually, they would only get a set amount, and it was never enough to feed the whole family. Mao believed that many peasants were growing more food than necessary and keeping some for themselves, however this was proved not to be the case; production rate had fallen from 200 million in 1958 to 143.5 million in 1960. Mao simply didn’t trust the peasants, believing they were ‘inherently capitalist’ and were against being a communist state. The peasants resented farming collectively because they didn’t have enough land to farm their crops, as well as the fact that the authorities believed that they needed to be ‘strictly controlled and directed.’ This attitude towards them caused the peasants to be reluctant to hand over their crops to the state, however they had no choice as they were no longer allowed to farm for themselves and the grain produced went to the State instead, to feed the cities, leaving many to starve. Lysenkoism was also a huge factor that contributed to the scale of the famine. This was a theory introduced by Trofim Lysenko, a Soviet agronomist, who claimed to have discovered a new method for producing at least double the amount of crops, which involved planting crops deeper in the ground and closed together. China was heavily influenced by the work of the Soviet Union, especially Lysenko’s ideas as Mao aspired for China to be similar to them, meaning he assumed the policies they followed must work. He introduced the policy in 1958; however, the plants couldn’t grow in these conditions, causing huge famine and lack of food. Furthermore, a competition was developed during the Great Leap Forward for creating the most striking demonstrations of close planting. Most peasants took this to the extreme and planted seeds as close to each other as possible. As a result, a large amount of their crops died and what survived was taken away by the government officials, leaving the peasants with nothing to eat. Although collectivisation and Lysenkoism were the main factors leading to the scale of the famine, there were other aspects that contributed to it. Mao was determined to stay in power and refused to believe the true scale of the problem. When presented with a report on the genocide in Tibet, Mao dismissed it as a ‘collection of lies and distortions’ as it criticised the PRC. He was informed that around 15 million peasants had died due to his new policies but he was adamant that he was not to blame. Instead he blamed other external factors causing the scale of the famine, such as bad weather, uninformed local officers and greedy peasants. Other factors that also contributed to the scale of the famine included how focus was taken away from agriculture and set on industry instead. This meant that a dangerously high proportion of farm workers were diverted into steel production and a shortage of agricultural labour meant led to insufficient planting so large amounts of crops died. Another of Mao’s policies that failed was â€Å"Sparrowcide†; this was the killing of thousands of sparrows because it was claimed they ate the seeds of the crops. However the campaign against sparrows was so effective that as the number of sparrows decreased, the number of caterpillars, on which the birds did actually feed, increased so they consumed large areas of crops. On the other hand, Mao’s agricultural policies weren’t solely to blame for the scale of the famine; the conspiracy of silence also played quite a major role. Government officials knew that Lysenkoism was failing and that the targets set by Mao weren’t being met but they were too scared to speak out about it. They knew Mao would have them purged if they appeared to go against him, due to his refusal to face the facts. An example of this was when a conference was called to discuss the progress of the Great Leap Forward in Lushan, during which one official, Peng Dehuai, spoke the truth about the extent of the famine in an attempt to rectify the situation. However the other members did not support him so as not to appear that they were against Mao because they were afraid of what would happen to them and it was also said to them that criticism of the Party could lead to the collapse of its power. Because of this, some of the information on the scale of the famine was held back from Mao. At the beginning of the famine, reports of success soon became obligatory and were used for future planning. The figures were believed, resulting in communes serving over-generous meals and using up valuable food reserves on top of the State taking ownership of the food they produced. As the famine continued, officials would still report back to Beijing that the peasants were producing enough grain and the targets were being met so more and more peasants would be left to starve whilst their food was taken away to feed the urban population and to use as exports to the USSR. Furthermore, the peasants would lie about the amount of food they were producing by moving the grain around or including other food they were producing, such as fruit and vegetables, as well as all the grain they had produced. This meant that the officials would take away all the grain that the peasants had, leaving them with nothing. Therefore, some historians could argue that the peasants themselves contributed to the scale of the famine and it wasn’t just down to Mao’s policies. Although Lysenkoism is seen to be one of the biggest factors leading to the scale of the famine, the failure of Lysenkoism wasn’t entirely Mao’s fault. Lysenko’s theory on how to increase productivity was false and, although it could be argued that the failing of this policy was inevitable, China was heavily influenced by Soviet scientists. They were influenced into believing that Lysenko’s theories were right and he could do no wrong and this propaganda would have led Mao to believe the policies would benefit his county. The peasants were also influenced into believing that Mao could do no wrong, so many believed that the new policies would save them, rather than send them further into famine. Additionally, there were some factors contributing to the scale of the famine that Mao couldn’t have controlled, such as bad weather and natural disasters, such as floods. During 1959, China suffered a lot of bad weather and floods that destroyed large amounts of land and crops and in 1960 an estimated 60% of agricultural land in northern China received no rain at all. Mao blamed the scale of the famine on this, although this was far from being the sole reason for the scale of it. It could be argued that if Mao had not forced the peasants to follow Lysenkoism, the plants may have had a better chance of surviving, despite the weather. To conclude, I feel that Mao’s agricultural policies were the biggest factors that caused the scale of the famine, as the lack of food only started after they had been introduced. Policies such as Lysenkoism and large communes meant that crops weren’t growing properly and that the peasants didn’t have enough to eat even before the State started to claim them to feed the urban population, besides other policies. However, there were other contributing factors that led to the scale of the famine, the main one being the conspiracy of silence. The officials were been terrified of Mao’s punishments, so would have told him whatever he wanted to hear to avoid them. Some historians argue that if the officials hadn’t lied, and instead told Mao the extent of the famine, he would have been forced to accept he must rectify his mistakes, and change the policies. However, as the officials were lying to him, there is a possibility he genuinely may have not known the scale of the famine and therefore not seen the need to change anything. On the other hand, Mao had very little knowledge of agriculture in the first place and set ridiculously high goals for the amount of grain that the peasants were expected to produce. He didn’t realise that the peasants didn’t have the correct methods or enough land to produce the correct amount of grain. If he hadn’t set such ambitious goals in the first place, the officials wouldn’t have had to lie to him to cover up his mistakes, so the majority of the scale of the famine should be placed on Mao’s agricultural policies.

“Storyteller” by Liz Lochhead

Liz Lochhead's poem â€Å"Storyteller† talks about a woman who worked on a shelter or orphanage for kids. Her formal work was to wash the dishes, cook and clean, but her really work, what mattered about her, was telling stories. In the first stanza Lochhead describes the situation before the woman started telling the story, when she â€Å"sat down at the† table in the already cleaned up room. Stanza number two the audience listening to the stories; none of them â€Å"could say the stories were useless†, this is because they were not. Living in conditions were you have to be with kids that are alone, miss their parents or never had them, and having to deal with them and their possible frequent questions that are not easy to answer, the hunger, the tiredness, is not easy, so when they listen to the stories, they forget about all that stuff and imagine in their head a whole different world. The people listening to the story are presented as a whole, not as individuals, so this gives the reader the idea that there is a lot of people there working. Also because it says: â€Å"five or forty fingers stitched†, this may suggest something uncountable. Stanza three says what people thought about her: they did not care whether â€Å"her soup† was â€Å"tasty† or not, or how good she â€Å"swept† the â€Å"kitchen†, that was not important. What was important were the stories she told, and how she told them. Because it is not only the story itself what mattered, it seems that she had a special talent to tell them, because even though workers â€Å"knew† â€Å"the ending† â€Å"by heart† they were still excited when the moment came. The last stanza describes what happens while she is telling the story and when it finishes. They built â€Å"the fire†, â€Å"peasant's feet† were looking for their â€Å"clogs†, and finally they went to rest. The poem is full of literary resources most of them alliterations spread all over the text. These alliterations are not only words together starting with the same sound, but in the whole of a stanza the same sound is repeated. For example in the first one, the â€Å"s† sound is very present: â€Å"she sat†, â€Å"scoured†, â€Å"swept†. Also in the third line of the second stanza there is an alliteration beginning with â€Å"f†: â€Å"five or forty fingers†. All these resources make the reading easier and faster. It may suggest how the story flows. Other devices are used, not only alliteration, also enjambments, onomatopoeic sounds like â€Å"tongue clacked†, and a metaphor too. This metaphor compares the workers with bats; bats are wonderful animals that are awake at night and sleep â€Å"upside down†. The metaphor is introduced in the second half of the last stanza that says they â€Å"hug themselves upside down† â€Å"till they flew† (like bats). The structure of the poem is completely irregular and has no rhyme. It consists of four stanzas, none of them have the same amount of lines, but the first two are shorter than the others. This may be the way the story she is telling is being told. It starts introducing the main ideas and then can not be controlled.

Mudik in Indonesia

The tradition of mudik or home for the holidays is found in many countries. Why is this tradition so strong in certain societies? Does it still have a place in today’s world? Mudik is an Indonesian term used to describe when someone who lives away from home is coming home for the holidays. This tradition is often seen during great holidays, such as Christmas and Eid-ul-Fitr. In Indonesia, for example, as many as 30 million people go mudik on Eid-ul-Fitr in 2011. Most people do mudik activity because they want to reunite with their families after being away for working or studying for a long time.Some societies think that mudik is a sacred tradition, because they usually only do that once a year on the great holidays. At that time, they feel that they need to see their family members and strengthen the relationship with them by spending time together. Moreover, those holidays are very essential in both culture and religion matters, and therefore, people are willing to go for a long distance trip home to celebrate them. Many people living far away from home in big cities do not only do mudik as a tradition, but also as a reason to run away from urban life and to feel again the atmosphere of the home where their childhood memories be.For instance, the stress I had brought from the urban city suddenly disappeared when I ate my mother’s cooking that I always missed. Nowadays, the number of people go mudik is increasing over time. One of the reasons is the increasing level of income, so more people can afford to buy travel tickets or even drive their own private vehicles as transport means. An aim they have which is to be back again with their families. They will go through any constrains only to feel again their home sweet home atmosphere.

A study of the performance of the lucky plush dance in the product cinderbox 2.0

A study of the performance of the lucky plush dance in the product cinderbox 2.0 The Lucky Plush dance company graced the stage with their innovative and abstract performance of Cinderbox 2.0, a work that â€Å"explores reality television and the anxiety of hyper-networked America.† Although the term dance theatre has been mentioned in readings and lectures, never before has the literal combination of dance and theatre through choreography and text been seen on a live stage.The performance was rather complex, with several sensory media present at once to appeal to the audience. This essay will discuss the union of text, choreography, and multimedia in the piece, as well as the social commentary it attempts to make. Text and choreography creatively come together in Cinderbox 2.0 through the company’s twofold role of dancing and story telling. Throughout the work the performers switch off from dance to speech delivery; without one, the other would neither make sense nor be as effective to the audience. At the very beginning a female member delays the program by talking on her cell phone longer than expected, for example. After her monologue with the phone, she jumped right into her position (pushing someone out of the way in the process) and the dancing commenced. Near the end of the performance the company came together to lift one member at a time while that person spoke about a social issue in a lifted dancer’s position; this combination demonstrates another combination of text and choreography. The aesthetics of the movements complemented by the short monologues in succession augment the purpose of Lucky Plush’s performance. The structures of the text and choreography are both similar and different in the way that they were usually presented in a way in which they took turns dominating the stage at any particular moment in the piece; however they varied by length throughout and sometimes had no relation with one another. The ridiculous discussion of Fiji brand water, for example, would be separated from the dance and intertwined between the movements. Also, the moment in which the woman who always stops while attempting to sing a song (and asks to try again) occurred many times, but between dance breaks. Finally, a similarity in structure between text and choreography was that two or groups of two people usually performed both. The frequent pair work in the production further defines how it is indeed dance theatre. In addition, there were some moments in which dance and text were being performed at the same time on stage. An example of this is the illusion of the male and female dancer watching some sort of media(likely the television). Another male dancer was dancing in front of them, as if they were watching him; however the movements sometimes did not match up with what they were watching (although in the beginning there was a mention of fishing while the dancer was insinuating the activity). But every once in a while, when the female performer became excited at the sight of her favorite part of whatever she was watching, the dancer would correspond with her by shaking his head rapidly in front of her. There definitely was some abstract connection between the text and choreography here as well. All of these examples of the combination and connection of text and choreography compile into one thing: dance theatre. One cannot call Cinderbox 2.0 simply dance or theatre because aspects of each are seen within the performance; they function together to create modern dance with a purpose: in this case, a social commentary. At some points the dance and the theatrical pieces of the work do not appear to relate to one another, but at other points they would not be regarded by the audience as highly and mentally if they were not together. What is certain, however, is that dance and theatre are both used to entertain; therefore their combination into dance theatre augments the entertainment factor even further. This assists in conveying more prominently the ideas of the piece as a whole. Lucky Plush’s effort in displaying a seemingly chaotic performance does not go without purpose. The spectacle was a social commentary of a hyper-networked America, and how various media, especially television, plays a vital role. It all began with the woman on her phone, delaying the commencement of the dance. Later the pair watching ‘television’ becomes completely enthralled in the program by coming face to face with the dancer personifying said program. The Fiji water discussions and satirical individual interviews/commentaries (which were delivered while being lifted in a dancer’s position) expressed the characters’ self-appointed authority over the featured discussion of topics; they were only known as a result of the superficial information given by the various media to which they have been exposed. This moment in the performance was further highlighted with the singing of â€Å"We are the Champions† by Queen, increasing the idea that pe ople, as a result of media, develop a sense of false and undeserving pride. The performance ends with a fight in dance form: the result of empowerment by the media that leads to competition. Cinderbox 2.0 was a very difficult piece to decipher; it was filled with abstract and (at times) confusing details. Lucky Plush really succeeded in involving the audience by looking right at them and at one point in the production calling someone seated off stage amidst the crowd. They brought the spectators in to realize the consequences of being hyper-networked and excessively influenced by the media. It seems like the theatre-half of this work of dance theatre was more effective in conveying the underlying message. This performance demonstrates that any aspects of art can be combined to deliver something entertaining and insightful to an interested audience.

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT - Case Study Example When Tom Harrison had arrived the university and was looking for the methods or ways to improve the overall effectiveness of the organization rather finding out the weaknesses and working upon them. The focus on the overall increase in the efficiency of the organization will help in the long term in the form that there will be increased and improved productivity and the employees will be engaged in work in a far more productive way. The association of the idea of working as the team to the NASCAR races, is an example of sense making when the employees have associated the concept of the quick team work as the NASCAR team. Keeping up with this fast paced world is becoming an uphill task for the companies due the recession and economical crisis that has plunged the business and the employment rates. Though we are suffering problems like underemployment and unemployment, the current employees problem are being over looked for they are over stressed. This in turn has put a lot of pressure on the present work force which not only affects their mental health but also is a source of putting the long term success of the company at stake as well. There are numerous contributing to this state for the employees, namely the crisis, and the fear of losing one’s job. ... Further, the employees do not want to spoil their relation with their employers for again the fear of losing the job. The reputation, productivity, working environment, employee and employer relation has all been drastically changed owing to the pressure cooker type environment due to recession. To overcome all of this many organization have started a new program to assist the employees. This new initiative is known as the Employee assistance program, what this program offers is a wide range of help to the employees. Further, it has been made a confidential process for no employee can know what other is taking help on. This is because to ensure the employee that they can share their problem without the fear of being ridiculed. These problems include marital troubles, anxiety, drug issues, work and family balance, personal development and growth and career related problems. (Jonathan E. DeGraff (21 February 2010)).  The good thing about this service is that it is available throughou t the day and for the whole week with numerous help lines and people there, to assist you whenever you want it (Debb, 2006). There are even no charges, and all of your personal information is safe without any danger of it being leaked. Every firm has developed its own assistance program. This step has proved better work force and increased productivity. The effectiveness of the workplace and the rejuvenation of the employees had been beneficial to improving the environment as well as the production. It has put a stop to disputes and has increased retention of employees. This has opened doors for employment in certain large firms there are two departments for the look after of employees. This initiation will prove extremely helpful in the