Review of NPR: The Trials and Triumphs of National Public Radio by Michael p. mccauley

This article looks at the news production practices surrounding letters to the editor as a case study in the difficulties of creating a civil public debate in multicultural societies. It examines how letters editors make decisions about publishing uncivil letters—letters that are sexist, racist, homophobic, or generally intolerant. If letters contribute to the public debate, editors are reluctant to reject them, even if they challenge norms of propriety. Editors reject only letters that fall into one of two categories: (1) personal attack letters that might result in libel suits and (2) letters that are openly racist, sexist, or homophobic and do not in any way contribute to the public debate. They justify their decisions in common sense theories sympathetic to deliberative democracy. Editors thus see a policy of limited editorial intervention as the only way to ensure an open and honest debate about the varied issues that face the citizens of a multicultural society.     

Because every pupil counts: the success of the pupil monitoring system in The Netherlands

The National Institute for Educational Measurement in The Netherlands has developed a pupil monitoring system for primary education to assess pupils' learning progress on a longitudinal basis. If pupil development is unsatisfactory, pupil monitoring system material can be used to locate and tackle the problems. This article describes the system, the set-up of the longitudinal calibration, the psychometrics used and the educational procedure for structured action. The pupil monitoring system comes with a software program and this article also explains the possibilities of the program, the information it provides to the teacher and school, the role of the computer and the advantages of working with the program. Experience of working with the system is discussed as well as the modifications and improvements that may be necessary in the future