Assessing state ESSA plans: Innovation or retreat?

2019 ◽  
Vol 101 (2) ◽  
pp. 8-13
Author(s):  
Patrick McGuinn

Three years after the passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), Patrick McGuinn reviews how the U.S. Department of Education has managed the approval process for state accountability plans, how state plans are shaping up as a result of their newfound flexibility, and what implementation challenges have emerged. States have required multiple iterations to submit plans that the Department of Education would approve, and state plans have met with criticism from multiple quarters and across the political spectrum. Some states have adopted new practices related to testing and which measures to use to assess schools. However, it is not yet clear what the long-term effects that the giving of greater flexibility to the states will have.

Author(s):  
Detlef Pollack ◽  
Gergely Rosta

The case of East Germany raises the question of why religion and church, which had fallen to an unprecedentedly low level after four decades of suppression, have not recovered since 1989. The repressive church politics of the SED were undoubtedly the decisive factor in the unique process of minoritizing churches in the GDR. However, other external factors such as increasing prosperity, socio-structural transformation, and the expansion of the leisure and entertainment sector played an important role, too. In addition, church activity itself probably also helped to weaken the social position of churches. The absence of a church renaissance after 1990 can be explained by several factors, such as the long-term effects of the break with tradition caused by the GDR system, the political and moral discrediting of the church by the state security service, and people’s dwindling confidence in the church, which was suddenly seen as a non-representative Western institution.


F1000Research ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 2690 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adriana Bankston ◽  
Gary S. McDowell

Background: On December 1 2016, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) will be updated by the U.S. Department of Labor. The key changes are an increase in the salary threshold for exemption from overtime for working more than 40 hours per week, and indexing the salary level so that it is updated automatically every 3 years. This update is predicted to have a profound effect on the academic enterprise as a large proportion of the postdoctoral researcher population is currently paid at a salary below the new threshold for exemption. Here we review the key changes to the FLSA, how they came about, and how the postdoctoral population is affected by the ruling. Methods: We describe recent data collection efforts (checking university websites and contacting HR departments) to uncover what institutions in the 2014 NSF Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering are doing to comply with the FLSA ruling for postdocs. Results: Our data show that 41% of the estimated postdoctoral workforce in STEM and 57% of institutions checked have not decided or have no public decision yet available one month prior to implementation, and only 35.5% of institutions are planning to raise salaries to the new minimum. Conclusions: Our data show the uncertainty of postdoc salaries in the U.S. one month prior to implementation of the FLSA ruling. This implementation also gives rise to various issues that have arisen in an already strained research enterprise, including short-, medium- and long-term effects on academe.


2019 ◽  
pp. 156-191
Author(s):  
William Lazonick ◽  
Jang-Sup Shin

This chapter uses innovation theory to provide both a general theoretical critique and a selective empirical critique of the use of agency theory to rationalize the looting of the U.S. business corporation as enhancing economic efficiency. It focuses on three empirical works, Bebchuk and Fried, Pay Without Performance (2004); Bebchuk, Brav, and Jiang, “The Long-Term Effects of Hedge-Fund Activism” (2015); and Fried and Wang, “Short-Termism and Capital Flows” (2017). The chapter contends that MSV ideology as promulgated by agency theorists has contributed to inferior corporate and economic performance. It then argues that, for analyzing the operation and performance of the economy, innovation theory should replace agency theory.


2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-124
Author(s):  
Andrea Scionti

This article examines the nature and significance of the activities carried out in France and Italy by the Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF), an international organization that was secretly funded by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency to support anti-Communist intellectuals, including those on the left end of the political spectrum. These two West European countries, with their large and politically influential Communist parties, were central to the CCF's work in Europe. The organization's task was complicated by domestic concerns and traditions that forced local intellectuals to stress their autonomy from the CCF International Secretariat and its U.S. patrons. The article uses the cultural Cold War and the competing interpretations of anti-Communism and cultural freedom within the CCF as a lens to explore the limits of U.S. influence and persuasion among the intellectual classes of Europe. By repeatedly asserting their independence and agency, the French and Italian members of the CCF helped redefine the character and limits of U.S. cultural diplomacy.


2014 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 186-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Haggerty ◽  
Patricia H. Gude ◽  
Mark Delorey ◽  
Ray Rasker

2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-35
Author(s):  
Richard L. Abel

The rule of law is a foundation of the liberal state. There is broad consensus about its core, extending across the political spectrum. Our own experience tragically teaches that the rule of law is most endangered when those exercising state power feel threatened: during and after wars and in response to social protest.      


MCU Journal ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 74-87
Author(s):  
Scott Erdelatz ◽  
J. D. Canty ◽  
Mark Desens ◽  
Chris Seneko

Current debates on naval integration mostly focus on whether the naval Services’ warfighting concepts are on target—the why of naval integration—or whether integration efforts are jeopardizing the Marine Corps’ ability to fulfill longstanding roles and missions. An underappreciated aspect of this topic is the process, or the how, of naval integration. The actions of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps during the interwar period are a positive example of naval integration and indicative of the long-term effects that can follow. Many current developments, in particular the growing partnership of the Marine Expeditionary Force (MEF) and fleet commands, are examples of effective naval integration and will help ensure that the Services arrive at the proper end state.


Author(s):  
M. Subudhi ◽  
E. J. Sullivan

This paper presents the results of an aging assessment of the nuclear power industry’s responses to NRC Generic Letter 97-06 on the degradation of steam generator internals experienced at Electricite de France (EdF) plants in France and at a United States pressurized water reactor (PWR). Westinghouse (W), Combustion Engineering (CE), and Babcock & Wilcox (B & W) steam generator models, currently in service at U.S. nuclear power plants, potentially could experience degradation similar to that found at EdF plants and the U.S. plant. The steam generators in many of the U.S. PWRs have been replaced with steam generators with improved designs and materials. These replacement steam generators have been manufactured in the U.S. and abroad. During this assessment, each of the three owners groups (W, CE, and B&W) identified for its steam generator models all the potential internal components that are vulnerable to degradation while in service. Each owners group developed inspection and monitoring guidance and recommendations for its particular steam generator models. The Nuclear Energy Institute incorporated in NEI 97-06, “Steam Generator Program Guidelines,” a requirement to monitor secondary side steam generator components if their failure could prevent the steam generator from fulfilling its intended safety-related function. Licensees indicated that they implemented or planned to implement, as appropriate for their steam generators, their owners group recommendations to address the long-term effects of the potential degradation mechanisms associated with the steam generator internals.


2021 ◽  
pp. 267-272
Author(s):  
Anna von der Goltz

The Conclusion summarizes and expands upon the findings of the book’s six chapters. It offers some overarching comments about how this study helps us to rethink the existing scholarship on 1968 and postwar German history more broadly. It highlights three contributions, in particular: revealing the striking political breadth and versatility of student activism around 1968 and the relational character of activism of the Left and centre-right; the book’s implications for writing histories of generation; and rethinking the long-term effects of 1968 on (West) German society to account for the manifold ways in which these years left their mark on Christian Democracy and the political culture of the late Federal Republic.


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