As the world continues to face the ongoing impacts of the global coronavirus pandemic, Penn State President Eric Barron outlined Friday the University’s actions over the past five months to address the challenges, protect the health and safety of the University community, and prepare for the future.

Get the latest Kindle Paperwhite plus a leather cover and power adapter for just $129.97. That's less than the cost of the Paperwhite on its own.

As the two big groups of states craft common-assessment systems, experts warn that the smallest details could undermine their work.

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Since learning is so nuanced, so too should be the means in which we assess it. Let's offer students the opportunity to be seen as whole people who can demonstrate different skills and knowledge in a plethora of ways over a period of time.

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Here's a handy glossary on terms like project-based learning, competency-based learning, and standards-based grading.

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In the last extract from the new UEFA EURO 2016 technical report, the expert panel examine whether having the majority of possession was really much use at all.

The Tennessee department of education is proposing unsually comprehensive legislation that will require all current and new K-3 teachers, and those who train them, to know evidence-based reading instruction.

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What gets tested gets taught, so performance assessments that measure the competencies that matter can lead to instruction that yields those competencies, argues Ben Kornell of Envision Learning Partners.

The Assessment for Learning Project, a partnership between Center for Innovation in Education and Next Generation Learning Challenges, granted twelve grants totaling $2 million for rethinking assessment.

UEFA's ground-breaking weekly vlog Press Play has now had over three million views on the Together #WePlayStrong Youtube channel.

CNA Staff, Apr 6, 2020 / 01:00 pm (CNA).- Unable to lead the traditional Palm Sunday procession through Jerusalem, Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, OFM, apostolic administrator of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, blessed the city with a relic of the True Cross on April 5.

The annual procession, which recalls Christ’s entry into the city and the beginning of Holy Week, was cancelled in line with international efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19, with public gatherings and events suspended in Israel. 

“We decided since we cannot have the palm procession, to have anyway a moment of prayer this afternoon,” said Pizzaballa on Sunday. The archbishop led a short, multi-lingual “moment of prayer” at Dominus Flevit, a church located on the Mount of Olives.

The church, which is shaped like a teardrop, overlooks the city, and was built to mark the Gospel account of Jesus weeping as he envisioned the destruction of Jerusalem.

The prayer service ended with Pizzaballa raising a relic of the True Cross over the city in benediction. 

Jerusalem, said Pizzaballa, “is a symbol of the church, the symbol also of humanity. It is the house of prayer for all the people, according to the scriptures.”

“So when we cry [over] Jerusalem, together with Jesus, we cry [over] all our human fraternity, for this difficult moment we are living, for this sad Palm Sunday, this Easter we have to celebrate.”

Pizzaballa said that sadness over being unable to celebrate the liturgical feasts of Holy Week is real, but “maybe, in a way also very true, very essential.” 

“Today we have not celebrated the solemn and beautiful entrance of Jesus to the city of Jerusalem like every year, with faithful from all the parishes of the diocese and with pilgrims from all over the world,” Pizzaballa said during the prayer service.

“We have not raised our palms and olive branches to cry out ‘Hosanna’ to our king, Jesus the Christ.” 

Instead, the archbishop asked Catholics in the Holy Land and around the world to consider what the Lord may be trying to say during these times.

He noted that, while the people of Jerusalem in the Gospel greeted him with cheers on Palm Sunday, Jesus knew that “He came to Jerusalem, not to be on the throne like David, but to be put to death.” 

“The meaning that Jesus attributes to his ‘triumphal entry’ is different from the meaning that the people of Jerusalem saw in it,” he said.

“Perhaps this is the lesson that Jesus wants to teach us today. We turn to God when there is something that harms us. When we are in trouble, suddenly we all want to ask big and difficult questions.”

While people may be praying for an end to the COVID-19 pandemic as we often do for solutions  to other problems, the archbishop said that  “Jesus responds in His own way” to these prayers. 

“Precisely because Jesus says ‘yes’ to our deepest desires, He will have to say ‘no’ to our immediate desires,” he said.

Drawing comparisons between this year's Palm Sunday and the biblical Palm Sunday during Christ's earthly life, Pizzaballa said the story of Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem “is a lesson on the discrepancy between our expectations and God’s response.” 

The crowd who greeted Jesus was disappointed that their salvation was not immediate, said Pizzaballa, but “Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem is truly the moment when salvation is born.” 

“The ‘Hosannas’ were justified, even if not for the reasons the Jerusalemites had supposed,” he said. 

This remains true today, he explained. Although it may seem as though God is not answering prayers and leaves people “disappointed,” this is in part because “our expectations remain without an apparent response.”

Christianity, he said, “is based on hope and love, not certainty,” and that while God will not answer all problems with certainty, “He won’t leave us alone.” 

“And here, today, despite everything, at the gates of His and our city, we declare that we really want to welcome Him as our King and Messiah, and to follow Him on His way to His throne, the cross,” he said.  

“But we also ask Him to give us the strength necessary to carry it with His own, fruitful love.”

CNA Staff, May 1, 2020 / 12:09 pm (CNA).- The Turkish foreign ministry on Wednesday rejected Turkey's inclusion in a report by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, charging that the report comes from a “biased mindset”.

“The report contains baseless, unaccredited and vague allegations as in the past years while trying to portray isolated incidents as violations of religious freedoms through far-fetched accusations,” Hami Aksoy, a spokesperson for the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said April 29.

“The importance attached by Turkey to protect religious freedoms, including those of religious minorities, is expressed at the highest level by our Government officials. Our authorities make it clear that any harm to the religious freedoms of our citizens will not be tolerated,” Aksoy added.

In its 2020 report, USCIRF recommended that the State Department add Turkey, as well as 10 other countries, to a “Special Watch List” of countries where abuses of religious minorities are taking place, but not at a level as severe as in those designated as “countries of particular concern.”

The commission wrote that “religious freedom conditions in Turkey remained worrisome” in 2019, “with the perpetuation of restrictive and intrusive governmental policies on religious practice and a marked increase in incidents of vandalism and societal violence against religious minorities.”

It cited the Turkish government's prevention of the election of board members for non-Muslim religious groups and its limitations on the election of the Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople.

The report added that Alevis, a group related to Shia Islam and the country's largest religious minority, “remained unable to gain official recognition for their gathering houses (cemevleri) as places of worship or to exempt their children from compulsory religious classes, despite European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) rulings finding that these policies violated Alevis’ rights.”

According to the US commission, Turkish religious minorities “expressed concerns that governmental rhetoric and policies contributed to an increasingly hostile environment and implicitly encouraged acts of societal aggression and violence.”

The report also drew attention to the permission given for a museum, that was originally a Greek Orthodox church and later a mosque, to be reconverted into a mosque. It noted also that president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has called for the same thing to happen to the Hagia Sophia, which has the same history.

USCIRF also said the Turkish government has “continued to dismiss, detain, and arrest individuals affiliated with, or accused of affiliation with, the U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gülen, for alleged complicity in a July 2016 coup attempt or involvement in terrorist activity.”

Gülen has lived in the US since 1999, and is considered a terrorist by the Turkish government.

The Turkish foreign ministry charged that Gülen's mention in the report “amounts to deliberately turning a blind eye” to the coup attempt, and added: “We invite the US authorities to earnestly examine the evidence we have provided” about the Gülen movement “and to engage in effective cooperation in line with the spirit of alliance in order to reveal the true nature of this terrorist organization.”

Aksoy added that the recommendation of adding Turkey to a “special watch list” for religious freedom “is a clear indication of the biased mindset behind it and the circles under whose influence it was drawn up.”

“In the report that is supposed to include global trends that threaten religious freedoms, the Commission does not mention a single word about xenophobia, Islamophobia and discrimination on religious grounds that is on the rise in the West and the US,” Aksoy stated.

“This clearly reveals that the purpose of the report is not to protect religious rights and freedoms. It is clear that the Commission, which has been accused of being anti-Muslim in the past, has drawn up this report based on its unwarranted agenda and priorities under the influence of circles that are hostile to Turkey, rather than objective criteria. We recommend the authors of this report to look in the mirror and engage in self-criticism.”

Earlier this year, Turkish authorities arrested a Syriac Orthodox priest on terrorism charges after he provided bread and water to members of a Kurdish separatist group that has been deemed illegal.

Most Pi projects run on Linux, so having some command-line chops makes the Pi much easier to work with. These commands can teach you a lot as you tinker.

To view more press releases, please visit http://ir.wintrust.com/news.aspx?iid=1024452.

Millennials and Generation Z make up 48 percent of the US workforce. Here are some insights on how businesses can better connect with these employees and engage this dominant market segment.

The House appropriations committee voted Wednesday to advance a bill providing a slight funding increase for the U.S. Department of Education, bringing overall funding to about $71 billion.

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Governor Jack Markell today joined Delaware State Housing Authority (DSHA) for the release of the Delaware Housing Needs Assessment 2015-2020. The report, prepared by GCR Incorporated of New Orleans, Louisiana and The Reinvestment Fund (TRF) of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, will drive planning for housing resources at DSHA and in communities around the State. With this new analysis of housing needs and market conditions in the state for years 2015-2020, DSHA will be identifying priorities for the next five years and evaluating its programs and strategies.

The United States has gained ground against other countries in a global assessment of teenagers' reading, math, and science skills. That's ironic, though, considering this country has been running in place for years in all three subjects.

Gunnar's Work-Play gaming glasses react to sunlight, shifting from a blue-ray-reducing amber tint indoors to full-on sunglasses outside.

The cockpit glasses promise to give you a bird's eye view from the Anafi drone's 180-degree camera. The Anafi FPV bundle will go on sale early this month.

MPs have been told that some tax changes proposed by Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan in his February budget will hit small firms hard.

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A breakdown of high-profile news stories you may have missed during the week.

Bank Audi proposed using government assets as collateral to offset the losses of the Central Bank and commercial banks that were the result of lending to the state.

A Sussex County Judge has found a Millsboro man guilty of murder. On November 17, 2016, a passerby discovered Darrin Gibbs of Millsboro lying face down on Monroe Street with a gunshot wound to the back of his head. Witness testimony, ballistics evidence, and video surveillance ultimately identified one of Gibbs’ associates, A.J. McMullen, as […]

Dover, DE  – Dr. Jean Vertus Laine, 42, formerly of Peoples Wellness Center, 556 South DuPont Highway, Milford Delaware, was indicted on Monday, July 8th, 2019 by a Sussex County Grand Jury, following an investigation by the DOI Fraud Prevention Unit. The indictment alleges that between August and October of 2017,  Doctor Jean Laine fraudulently […]

Dover, DE—Janet Lane, 59, formerly of Ocean View, Delaware was indicted on Monday September 9th, 2019 by a Sussex County Grand Jury for two counts of insurance fraud and one count of identity theft following an investigation by the Delaware Department of Insurance Fraud Prevention Unit. Ms. Lane had been a passenger in a car […]

The two funds are designed to spur job growth in Delaware Community and business leaders came together today to celebrate the success of a small business initiative which began in Wilmington a few years ago and to announce a complimentary effort that will support small businesses and job growth throughout Delaware. Facilitated by West End […]

A company working to make NASA spacesuits stronger and safer and another providing data to millions of drivers to help them avoid traffic jams are both growing in Delaware. Assistance from the state Division of Small Business, Development & Tourism is helping STF Technologies and TrafficCast take their businesses to the next level. “Growth in […]

Accreditation is the highest recognition afforded to museums in the United States.

DOVER, Del. (March 5, 2019) – Delaware small business owners in search of the right help at the right time will find it through the new Business Resource Connection on the website of the Delaware Division of Small Business, www.delbiz.com. The Business Resource Connection provides valuable information on approximately 300 programs from more than 80 […]

NEWARK, DE – Up-and-coming Delaware small businesses will now have a potential new source of capital to help them expand. As part of National Small Business Week (May 5 to May 11), the Division of Small Business on Monday launched a competitive, matching grant program to assist Delaware entrepreneurs who want to grow their small […]

WILMINGTON, DE – Ten Delaware small businesses were recognized Wednesday as the awardees of the first-ever EDGE Grants from the state Division of Small Business. Gov. John Carney and Division Director Damian DeStefano announced the companies at an event at the Carvel State Office Building in Wilmington. The grant recipients, located across the state, represent […]