Texas bests nation on testing gap

Educators are “still mulling over the results of national standardized test scores released last month, which showed an unusually clear national trend: While there have been some slight improvements in elementary and middle school math scores, the rate of gain is slowing. Meanwhile, reading scores are stagnant. These results contrast sharply with the scores of many states' own standardized tests, which purport to show clear gains. Already, some have pointed to this gap as evidence that the No Child Left Behind law, the president's plan to make states set standards and show annual academic improvement, isn't working. In a narrow sense, the critics are right: The gap is indeed evidence that many states are still using tests that are too easy, and they have not faced up to the genuinely difficult challenge of improving their schools. But the gap does not negate the value of using standards and high-stakes testing to improve student performance. The gap has also set off a discussion of what, if anything can be done at the national level to help states raise their students' achievement levels. Some are advocating the setting of national standards, a proposition that sounds nice in theory but seems politically impossible in practice. Standardized math and reading tests are, by themselves, not sufficient to improve American education. But without a recognition that higher standards are needed, improvement isn't even possible.”But by September 26th of 2007, (between 2005 and 2007), Everything has been change a little, as Michelle De La RosaExpress-News Staff Writer point out that "Students across the country are doing better than ever in reading and math, but Anglo students are still achieving at higher levels in those subjects than minorities, with Hispanics showing the least progress. Nationally, the gap in academic performance between Hispanic and Anglo students has seen little change, and it actually widened in math at the elementary school level."

Overweight trucks punish roads, bridges with states' permission

We spend millions of dollars to build roads and the state comes along and for a pittance gives out a permit to allow trucks to destroy those roads in a matter of months or years. Should they limit the overweight-load permits issued? Should they request permission to travel on a specified route for each trip?

More than a half-million overweight trucks are allowed onto the nation's roads and bridges. Some experts warned that the practice of issuing state permits that allow trucks to exceed the usual weight limits. In 2000, Milwaukee's Hoan Bridge collapsed when steel girders cracked. Several factors were blamed for the collapse, number of heavy trucks, some over the normal weight limit that routinely traveled over the bridge. The weight limit for nearly all interstate highways is 40 tons. According to a government study, one 40-ton truck does as much damage to the road as 9,600 cars. Many states charge fees ranging from $12 to $1,000 for overweight-load permits, depending on the weight of the load. Texas, granted nearly 39,000 such permits in the past year, generating $7.5 million, most of which was divided among the state's 254 counties for road maintenance. States allowed more than 500,000 overweight trucks to traverse the nation's bridges and highways in the past year, according to an AP review of figures in all 50 states. Those permits were good for an entire year. While 10 states do not issue yearlong permits, all states hand out shorter-term permits good for a few days, weeks or months. Those add up to more than 1.8 million permits not included in the AP's count. Many states as Texas increase in the number of overweight-load permits issued in recent years — a rise to a 2.5 percent to 3 percent annual increase in truck traffic because of the growing economy. In California, where about 23,000 single-trip permits are issued annually, must request permission to travel on a specified route for each trip, but in Colorado, where almost 21,000 permits are issued annually. The danger is magnified by a recent federal finding that 18 percent of the nation's bridges either do not have weight limits posted or incorrectly calculated the weight limits that are posted. Also, a federal study last year classified 26 percent of the nation's bridges as either structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. In Texas, vehicles transporting ready-mix concrete, milk, solid waste, recyclable materials, seed cotton or chile pepper seedlings are not required to have an overweight permit on state roads, even if they are over the limit.

This article is worth reading it, because it’s about Thousands of overweight trucks punish roads and bridges with states' permission. Get to know what is going on with the society and the state problem, people who’s thinking about the future, they fear that we're going to have some sort of disaster because the issuing is the state permits that allow trucks to exceed the usual weight limits can weaken steel and concrete.