Students sign pledges at some schools to do their homework, and teachers owe their jobs to students' gains on tests.
This was the second year the state offered the tougher test, and the private school students' gains were comparable with those made by public school students.
In a television interview last year, Dr. Tisch had kinder words for the city school system, calling it "a national model of how to move a complicated, urban school district" and saying students' gains on test scores were "real gains".
When a student or group of students gains insight and fluency through informal writing and thinking practice, we celebrate.
Students' gains and increased mastery, however, focused on intuitive understanding (which is what the FCI largely measures) rather than competence with formal terminology or notations.
In the case of ESL students, research on whether English proficiency improves after studying at an English-medium university has to date been scarce, and has generally examined students' gains after a relatively short duration.
