Such concerns would intensify if Bombardier makes progress on its partnership with COMAC, a Chinese state firm strongly backed by its home government, which is also building a narrowbody plane.
Rather than consider how a school does in a variety of subjects, they primarily measure a school's success based on how its students progress on the state English and math tests, which are given to all third- through eighth-grade students every year.
"The question is, why are the students making so much more progress on the state tests?
This time, there was progress: On the state math test, eighth-grade pass rates nearly tripled, to 63percentt.
Sixty percent of the grade is based on how much students progress on the state exams, and 25 percent is based on the absolute performance of a school's students on those tests.
Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein said in an interview that he was in favor of more rigorous national standards, but that progress on the state tests remained a meaningful barometer of the school system under his leadership.
A week that had started out with at least a glint of hope for progress on a state budget -- working groups of lawmakers said they were making progress behind the scenes -- rapidly devolved into sniping over blame for the budget crisis, a serious reprimand from two credit agencies and more sniping over who's to blame for the state's deteriorating credit rating.
Liberals may search for allies elsewhere, but without a new coalition, liberals are going to be much disappointed, although they may well continue to make some progress on the state level on cultural issues and above all -- on the national level -- on immigration issues.
However, Parliament's report shows that progress on Member States submitting their national energy efficiency plans is still lamentably slow and I would ask the Commission to continue to put pressure on them.
But we need to devise a way of measuring teacher-effectiveness that provides teachers with meaningful data — and yearly progress on state exams just isn't it.
