Exit exam may be unfair to disabled
California’s Education Department was brought to court
Tuesday over a high school exit exam that is allegedly biased
against students with disabilities.
The controversy began with three dyslexic students who felt
additional time or other accommodations should be made.
Dyslexia affects a person’s ability to process language, a
major disadvantage in timed, standardized tests.
Disability Rights Advocates represented the students in what
they hope will attain class action status.
“The politicians have … decided to use California
children as guinea pigs in an educational experiment that is
designed to fail,” said Alison Aubry, a lawyer who
represented the organization that sued.
Any student who fails the exit exam, which includes and English
and math portion, will fail high school.
The exam was developed and tested for several months last year.
The exam will be implemented in 2004.
Education department spokesperson Doug Stone was unaware of the
suit and said the test is still in its piloting stages.
Income gap narrows between rich and poor
Though California has greater income disparities in proportion
to the nation, the upturning economy has moved the poor further up
the economic ladder, according to data from a 1999 Census Bureau
report.
A new study by the Public Policy Institute of California
conducted a study based on the bureau’s figures that found
incomes grew 18 percent at the bottom of the economic pool, versus
11 percent for those at the top.
“While inequality has declined in California, it remains
higher than it was in previous decades, and it remains higher than
in other parts of the country,” said study co-author Mary
Daly, senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of San
Francisco.
The study targeted on households that earn $25,000 and $88,000
““ incomes which flank the state’s average of $51,000
for a family of four.
The slimming income gap is characteristic of the economy’s
effects on low income groups, who usually experience greater booms
in good times and greater damages during economic downturns.
The volatility of California’s economic profile is due to
the state’s large immigrant population. According to the
Census Bureau, 40 percent of 33.9 million state residents live in a
family headed by an immigrant, most of whom were employed in
low-skill, low-pay jobs, the study found.
“We can expect, if we do indeed have a downturn,
inequality will rise,” said study co-author deborah Reed, a
research fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California.
“Hard times are harder at the bottom.”
Men plead innocent to smuggling ivory
Two men pleaded innocent to smuggling more than 250 pounds of
ivory through Los Angeles International Airport.
Ebrima Marigo, 36, a Liberian citizen, and Bahoreh Kabba, 38, a
Gambian, entered the pleas Monday in a U.S. district court to
charges handed down last week by a federal grand jury.
Investigators said the ivory smuggling operation was the largest
ever discovered on the West Coast. An estimated $375,000 worth of
ivory was seized. The defendants allegedly hid the tusks in chairs
and statues, Assistant U.S. Attorney William Carter said.
The investigation began April 9 when customs officials working
at the Lufthansa cargo facility examined a shipment from Nigeria
and found elephant tusks hidden in several chairs.
Compiled from Daily Bruin wire reports.