Ever since the Public Schools Accountability Act was passed in 1999, we have been talking about the Standard Testing and Reporting system (STAR) administered to grades 2 through 11, the High School Exit Exam for 12th graders, and the Academic Performance Index (API) which compares schools throughout the state. Read more

"The Special Edge," a newsletter funded by the state's Special Education Division and produced by California Services for Technical Assistance and Training (CalSTAT) at Sonoma State, features an article by Marion Joseph of the California State Board of Education that equates reading with access. Read more

Does the _average_ kid need more from us? Well maybe. A recent article did a lot to get us thinking. A high school teacher in Maryland thought the kids in the middle were "slipping through the cracks" and not getting the attention they needed to build on their skills. Read more

StudyBuddy received notice from the Community Alliance for Special Education (CASE) that they have reconfigured their staffing to respond to the new special education legal environment, now that school districts have folded their compliance function into their legal offices. CASE now retains an attorney. Read more

StudyBuddy has failed at accessing the website of Parents Helping Parents. Be forewarned: they don't want you if you're less than cutting-edge in your web browsers. (We're in good company: the California Academy of Sciences Library, where we volunteer, also uses Netscape 4.7.)

PHP's website is available only to those users of Netscape 7.0 and Microsoft Windows 4. Read more