Maria Orlando

No one uses guilt the way Italians and Greeks do. Maria and Nick know that only too well. The two teachers swap stories about their respective mothers and aunts, who have employed tears and sorrow the way a surgeon uses a scalpel. They gift their tormentors a trip to California, but ironically the ladies wind up on the same flight, where they become instant friends, and the world suddenly gets turned upside down. If you have kids, if you were a kid---whatever your ethnic background---you will laugh, sigh, and shake your head as you share this adventure with Maria and Nick and their Mediterranean Mothers

A Sicilian rival to Helen of Troy is sent by the gods into the 21st Century "Witness Protection" to pose as an English teacher and preserve the course of history. She meets Nick, another teacher, who is taken with her and is puzzled by her obsession with THE ODYSSEY. But Zeus had been duped by the Oracle, who in tum was tricked by Aphrodite, which complicates a prophecy that leads Maria and Nick back 3,000 years to Sicily and an encounter with Odysseus. The teachers have to make the correct decisions to fulfill the prophecy and save history. Do they? Sent by the gods into 21st Century "Witness Protection," a rival to Helen Of Troy must return to ancient Sicily to fulfill an ancient prophecy and preserve the course of history.

This study examines information about the quality of the tests CUNY uses to decide who must take remedial courses. Nearly 65 percent of the students seeking bachelor's degrees and 90 percent of those seeking associate degrees are required to take remedial courses in reading, writing, or mathematics, resulting in a large portion of CUNY's resources and its students' time being devoted to remedial instruction. This report also provides a statistical profile of CUNY's incoming freshmen, presents information about the relationships among various test scores and grades at CUNY, and makes recommendations for improving the testing system.