If you throw all the products we buy and the services we use in one basket, then add up the price tag, that's the Gross Domestic Product, which is the primary metric economists use to assess the economic health of a country or region.

The easy part of calculating GDP is the calculation itself: C+I+G+(X-M)=GDP. Got it? No? Well, add Consumption, Investment by companies, Government purchases, and then take the product of eXports (calling it 'E' would lack sexiness) minus iMports ('I' was taken). Viola! GDP.

Still don't get it? Well, knowing the components helps. Consumption is the biggest component, and it's a tally of the cost of all the goods and services we buy. Investment is what companies spend on the real assets they own, plus the value of the inventory that we haven't gobbled up through consumption. Government purchases are what the Feds pay money for (whether it be highways or fighter jets, though big social programs, like welfare, aren't counted). And then we calculate the difference between the goods and services we¿re sending to other countries and the stuff we're bringing in.

Good. That explains it, except there's a catch. Inflation has a habit of distorting the numbers, so economists talk about either Nominal GDP or Real GDP. In fact, Real GDP isn't necessarily "real" for most folks, since it takes any inflation out. Nominal GDP includes the effects of inflation. (There's something called the implicit price deflator which is a calculation using the two, but we'll spare you the details.)

So, now that we know GDP, why do we want to? Well, it's good to compare different markets. And watching the trend shows whether a given economy is growing (good), stagnating (not so good), or shrinking (very not so good). When GDP goes down two quarters in a row, we're officially in a recession.

For the record, GDP is released at the end of each month, with most reporting ¿preliminary¿ data for the previous month. But you won't get final GDP numbers for the fourth quarter of a year until the very end of the first quarter of the next year. After all, it's not an easy number to calculate.

Home / Markets / Industries / Media

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

CTB/McGraw-Hill's Leading TerraNova Assessment Now Enhanced with Streamlined Reports

Email this Story | Respond to Editor | Print

Comtex

MONTEREY, Calif., July 22, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ ----CTB/McGraw-Hill today announced the release of TerraNova(TM) Third Edition Premier Reports, a series of streamlined assessment reports developed in partnership with The Grow Network/McGraw-Hill that will give parents, teachers, principals and school administrators a clear picture of student achievement as well as targeted instructional activities to help students succeed.

TerraNova 3 is an up-to-date, research-based norm referenced assessment that helps educators accurately measure K-12 students' skills relative to standards. With the Premier Reports enhancement, the depth of TerraNova's assessments will be communicated in easy-to-understand reports in five categories: Home Reports, Class Reports, Grade Reports, School Summary Reports and District Summary Reports.

"CTB's proven, rigorously researched TerraNova assessment now offers companion reports that provide a comprehensive picture of student proficiency for both educators and parents," said Ellen Haley, president of CTB/McGraw-Hill. "These tools provide detailed information in an easy-to-use format that makes data easy to understand, and helps students continue learning and achieve academic success."

Among the new assessment reports is the Premier Home Report which will enable parents to clearly see how students performed on key objectives by each content area tested: Reading, Language, Mathematics, Science and Social Studies. The Home Report also provides detailed instructional activities that are directly tied to a student's assessment performance to engage families and students in ways they can improve on key objectives. A Translation Guide for understanding the Home Reports is available online in 10 languages for non-English speaking families.

The Premier Class Report gives a clear snapshot of classroom performance by subject objectives and also provides a student-by-student overall profile that teachers can use to support differentiated instruction. The Grade-, School-, and District-level reports provide teachers, principals, and administrators with an executive level overview of assessment results.

TerraNova 3 is available in numerous options to suit district and diocese needs including: Multiple Assessments, which combine multiple choice and constructed response items; Complete Battery with multiple choice items only; and Survey, a more streamlined version for use with limited testing times.

For more information, call 800.538.9547 or visit www.CTB.com/TerraNova3

About CTB/McGraw-Hill

As the nation's leading publisher of standardized and standards-based achievement tests for pre-school, elementary, middle, high school, and adult education, CTB/McGraw-Hill LLC offers a broad range of assessments, software and services. CTB/McGraw-Hill LLC is part of the Assessment and Reporting group of McGraw-Hill Education (MHE), a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP). MHE is a leading global provider of instructional, assessment and reference solutions that empower professionals and students of all ages. McGraw-Hill Education has offices in 33 countries and publishes in more than 40 languages. Additional information is available at www.CTB.com.

About The Grow Network/McGraw-Hill

Established in March 2000, The Grow Network/McGraw-Hill has become a nationally recognized leader in educational assessment reporting and individualized instruction. The Grow Network/McGraw-Hill's innovative patent-pending system offers dynamic reports and differentiated learning tools online and in print for families, teachers, and educational leaders. The Grow Network/McGraw-Hill is part of the Assessment and Reporting group of McGraw-Hill Education, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP). McGraw-Hill Education is a leading global provider of instructional, assessment, and reference solutions that empower professionals and students of all ages. Additional information is available at http://info.grow.net/.

 Media Inquiries: Kelley
   Carpenter Director, Communications (831)393-7196 kelley_carpenter@mcgraw-hill.com

SOURCE CTB/McGraw-Hill

http://www.mheducation.com

Copyright (C) 2008 PR Newswire. All rights reserved **********************************************************************
   As of Friday, 07-18-2008 23:59, the latest Comtex SmarTrend� Alert, an automated pattern recognition system, indicated a DOWNTREND
   on 06-30-2008 for MHP @ $40.19. For more information on SmarTrend, contact your market data provider or go to www.mysmartrend.com
   SmarTrend is a registered trademark of Comtex News Network, Inc. Copyright � 2004-2008 Comtex News Network, Inc. All rights
   reserved.