The cry of the public classroom teacher is heard throughout the United States and in many parts of the world. With all the testing performed to ensure accountability in our educational system, there are not enough hours in the day to teach. Teachers become constrained to “teach to the test,” thereby impeding certain modalities of transmitting information to students, reducing the number of hours that students can take part in “unnecessary” activities like art and music, and increasing the amount of homework to fill in the gaps. What is the answer to the conundrum of maintaining standards of excellence in education without creating inordinate stress for teachers and students? Further, what assurances do we have that testing amounts to something more than making clever comparisons across States and nations? Is there a methodology of testing that leads to results that can be efficiently translated into better education for our children?
The answer to these questions and more were considered at the International Symposium for Methodological Tools for Accountability Systems in Education at the Joint Research Center [JRC] from February 6-8 in Ispra Italy. Attended by 90 international experts from 20 countries, leading minds gathered to resolve academic disputes and identify a few solid robust statistical practices upon which the widest international consensus can be reached. The sponsor of the symposium, the Unit for Applied Statistics and Econometrics at JRC was mandated to bring together a diverse team of educators, social scientists, economists and statisticians in a multi-disciplinary approach to education research. “Our Unit builds scales for the knowledge society,” said Daniele Vidoni, one of the conference organizers, “and our ability to bring together all these experts in one room may well be the key to focusing what path educational testing will take and what role it will have in cultivating our children’s future.” “Statistical techniques which allow quality of education to be measured are available,” added Andrea Saltelli, Unit Head, “but not all countries have the same experience of their use in education and training.”
Trevor G. Bond, Hong Kong Institute of Education, Andreas Schleicher, OECD, David Andrich of Murdoch University, Australia, Enrico Gori, University of Udine, Italy, Gage Kingsbury of Northwest Evaluation Association in the United States and several others were on hand to discuss the benefits of Rasch analysis in obtaining measures of student achievement that can be compared through space and time. The importance of generating a multilevel modeling approach to understanding the actual influence of gender, social and family conditions in student achievement was also explored. Experts also discussed the utilization of longitudinal measures of student achievement as necessary to an in depth understanding of student progress. All these factors are expected to yield, in practice, the ability to track an individual student’s progress over time, thus evaluating the quality of the education distinct from socio-economic location.
Above and beyond any intellectual discussion of statistics and the accuracy and efficiency of the methodologies used, which are certainly crucial to all forms of testing, experts agreed that whatever methodologies are utilized in the coming decades, they must yield expeditious results. Children are not meant to languish while adults read test scores that require excessive time periods to decipher or incorporate into educational practices. Adaptive and interactive testing that gives teachers direct access to the “front end” of testing results, already in practice in countries like New Zealand, may be the sought compromise that puts results quickly and efficiently into the hands of those most able to make sure that no child is “left behind.”
Denise Hummel is a native of New York, who moved to Italy with her husband and children. She directs a public relations/ communications business focused on intercultural issues.
A spelling tutor is a professional who specializes in helping students who have trouble with spelling words. Spelling is a particularly important subject for children in primary school and the dreaded “spelling test” is considered something of a right of passage for many students. While spelling proficiency is indeed very important, the necessity of being able to spell at a high level is not as important as it once was.
While written communication used to consist entirely of the pen and paper approach, most modern written communication occurs either as email or as a document prepared on a word processor. Both types of software usually provide spell checkers that can help correct the spelling of words in the document. Nevertheless, it is very important for grammar school aged children to become proficient in spelling. The question that often arises with parents of young children who have spelling difficulties is–should I consider hiring a spelling tutor for my child?
While spelling is indeed an important topic, the truth is that it tends to be subordinate in
importance to other skills such as grammar, writing, math, science, literature, etc. While we would never want to understate the value of any academic subject, the truth is that spelling is a skill that is less important than most others.
Nevertheless, parents who have a child who has trouble spelling may become concerned and consider hiring a spelling tutor to help their child overcome these difficulties. While this may be an effective solution to the problem, it is quite possible to work through spelling difficulties without resorting to the specialized services of a spelling tutor. That is, of course, unless the child is one of those fortunate few who compete in spelling bees–in that case, what is needed is not a spelling tutor but rather a spelling coach.
In most cases, parents are the most capable to serve as a spelling tutor. Spelling is a subject that does not require the parent to have advanced skills–anyone can read a list of words and check whether the student has spelled the words correctly. Students who are having difficulties with spelling are much more likely to experience positive results from a little parental involvement than what they could expect from hiring a spelling tutor.
The spelling tutor certainly has a place in the educational spectrum, but the importance of spelling is not what it once was. While spelling competitions have become incredibly popular in recent years, the truth is that spelling, while important, is nowhere near as critical a skill as reading, math, science, and other academic subjects.
If your child is having difficult spelling, then you should try to ascertain if the difficulty is indicative of a wider disorder. If so, then you should have him or her tested/treated for that disorder. If not, then it is not something to worry about.
Jane Saeman runs an In-Home Tutoring service called Aim High Tutors. Find out about how to help your student reach their full potential at http://www.aimhightutors.com/blog .
Three hours and forty-five minutes!” that’s what Julie said when I told her how long the New SAT was. “And I have to study Critical Reading, Vocabulary, Math, Grammar and Writing!” she added. “Yes,” I said. You’ve got to study all of that. “Well, I’ll just prioritize by focusing on the important stuff like the Math, Reading, Vocabulary and Grammar. The essay’s only 25 minutes of the test. It can’t affect my score that much right?” Julie was partly right. The essay is only about 1/9th of your potential score of 2400. However, in this case what Julie didn’t know could hurt her.
What she didn’t know is that college admissions officers won’t just look at Julie’s essay score when judging her suitability for admission. They will read a scan of the essay she wrote and use that as one criterion when they decide to reject or accept her application. In fact there are at least three important ways that college admission officers plan to use your student’s SAT Essay in deciding who will attend their undergraduate programs.
1. To see if your student can really handle the pressure of a college “blue book” exam.
How can an admissions officer know who will sail through their college exams, get on the honor roll each semester and graduate in 4 years? The answer: they can’t know for sure. That’s why they are constantly looking for new ways to predict college success and failure. And since most high school students don’t take in class essay exams as part of their curriculum admissions officers can’t use their transcripts to see how well they’ll do on college essay exams. That’s where the SAT Essay comes in. Many universities intend to use it to see who will do well on exams. For example, Ted Spencer, director of undergraduate admissions at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and trustee of the College Board stated, “The SAT essay will be a first draft, written under timed conditions not unlike the on-demand writing of a college “blue book” exam. It will… give us a better, more complete understanding of the student’s writing abilities.” And Lee Stetson, dean of admissions at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, said, “the essay test will give admissions officers a better feel for applicants’ writing and verbal skills and their ability to perform under ‘constraint.’”
2. To see how well you communicate ideas “on the spot” (even for math and science majors).
It’s a common misconception that math and science majors only need to do well on the Math section of the SAT. College officials from math and science oriented disciplines have consistently expressed the need for their students to have highly developed writing skills. For example, Ben Streetman, Dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin said, “This new requirement will be a great help to us in choosing students who can succeed in engineering. One of the most important skills an engineer has is the ability to present his or her ideas verbally and in writing. Virtually every engineering project begins with a written proposal, requires interim reports and culminates in a written summary. Professional success in engineering depends not only on the ability to apply the techniques of math and science to solve problems, but also on the engineer’s ability to write those proposals and reports in a way that helps others understand the work.” So while knowledge of math and science is obviously still very important for your student to gain admission to these programs, having powerful writing skills will set him or her above many students who lack these skills.
3. To see if any students “cheated” on their applications.
Sure, many students get help in revising and improving their college application essays. However, for years admissions officers have known that many students get “extra” help to make their essays appealing. There has never been a good way of knowing who these students are until the College Board added the Essay to the New SAT. Now, according to a survey done by Kaplan, almost 60% of the top 374 colleges and universities plan to use the SAT Essay to find writing level discrepancies among college applicants. For most honest students this shouldn’t be a problem unless they happen to write much worse on the SAT Essay than they did for their college application essays. Of course the best way to avoid suspicion of getting too much “help” on the admissions essay is to learn to write a good SAT Essay.
Now that you know that there are many important reasons why your student needs to do well on the SAT Essay, you might be wondering what are some of the best ways to prepare.
Successful preparation involves doing two things:
1. Writing an essay that will score well and
2. Writing an essay that will impress college admissions officers
For your student to score well she needs to learn the five characteristics that all high-scoring essays have in common and develop the skills to put these into her writing in under 25 minutes and under the pressure of test day.
Second, your student must write an essay that shows how insightful and intelligent he is so that admissions officers are impressed by the quality of the writing.
Below I list some important resources that can help your student prepare to write a stellar essay that will improve his or her chances of admission at the best schools.
The Official Guide to the New SAT published by the College Board and available on their web site http://www.collegeboard.com.
This site has several examples of essays graded by College Board graders which can give you a good sense of what it takes to get a high score.
Second, I recommend the website http://www.rocketreview.com which has a computerized program to help you grade several essay topics available there.
Third, I recommend my e-book “How to Write Fast and Effectively for the New SAT” which teaches the 6 steps to success on the SAT Essay, includes dozens of classroom tested exercises and many examples of real high scoring essays. It is available at http://www.sat-essay.net
Rodney Daut is a teacher with five years experience teaching history and writing. He also teaches SAT Courses and helps many students dramatically increase their scores. His book “How to Write Fast and Effectively for the SAT Essay” is available at SAT Essay.
Learning disabled children aren’t the only ones with books targeted toward them. A growing number of resources for teens have been made available in recent years as well. The teenage years are often tumultuous ones, with new social rules to abide by and one’s post-high school future to worry about. The added pressure of having a learning problem certainly doesn’t help to reduce the stress that teens face, but the good news is that there are some entertaining, informative, and inspiring books that have been written to aid them in realizing their full potential. Some of the very best include:
1. The Survival Guide For Teenagers With LD* (*Learning Differences), written by Rhoda Woods Cummings, Gary L. Fisher, Pamela Espeland, and L.K. Hanson, $12.95 (paperback), available on Amazon.com
This no-nonsense guide covers a great deal of information, from social skills to taking control of one’s own education. The writing is accessible and concise, managing to cover a lot of ground without glossing over anything important. The text is laid out in a reader-friendly format, with a clean font and ample room between lines. Frequent illustrations support the authors’ writing, and enhance textual meaning for visual learners. A great introductory guide for teens who have just been diagnosed with learning problems.
2. Learning Outside the Lines: Two Ivy League College Students With Learning Disabilities and ADHD Give You the Tools for Academic Success and Educational Revolution, written by Jonathan Mooney and David Cole,
$14.00 (paperback), available on Amazon.com
Perhaps the most encouraging advice for teens on how to handle scholastic difficulties is the kind that comes from those who have experienced them personally. Mooney and Cole not only found ways to work around their learning disorders, but they went on to attend Ivy League colleges. This book communicates the all-important message that higher education is certainly not off-limits to those with learning issues. Teens will appreciate the humor and warmth of this book, along with the practical advice of those who have faced struggles similar to their own.
3. My Thirteenth Winter: A Memoir, written by Samantha Abeel, $15.95 (hardcover), available on Amazon.com
Abeel’s intimate account reveals the life of a creative and intelligent person who faced tremendous difficulties in the early part of her academic career. For the author, school was a fun place to learn new things and socialize with friends until the second grade, when she realized that she was falling behind her peers in many areas. Abeel spent another five years wondering what was hampering her scholastic progress, until finally, in the seventh grade, she was diagnosed with dyscalculia. While many books about learning disabilities treat the period immediately following diagnosis as one of crisis, the author saw it as a time of relief and recovery. A well-written and inspiring tale.
Jane Saeman runs an In-Home Tutoring service called Aim High Tutors. Find out about how to help your student reach their full potential at http://www.aimhightutors.com/blog .
As more and more attention is paid to mathematical education, calculus, which was once only taught to the most mathematically inclined high school students, is quickly becoming a staple of high school mathematics education. If your student is having a difficult time making the transition to calculus based mathematics, it might be a good idea to consider hiring a calculus tutor to give your student a little extra guidance and attention.
Let’s face it–calculus is a pretty hard subject for any student to learn. While every form of mathematics that is taught prior to calculus has been known for thousands of years, calculus itself was not developed until the seventeenth century. This shows just how much of a leap there is between pre-calculus mathematics and calculus.
Many students can find themselves quickly overwhelmed when they start learning calculus. The subject requires a total change in the way that one views numbers and the way they interact. Calculus introduces such concepts as limits (numbers that approach infinitely closely to but never quite reach some value), derivatives (the instantaneous rate of change of a function), integrals (the opposite of the derivative), infinities, and other concepts that can stretch even the most agile of minds.
This puts the calculus tutor in a very precarious situation–not only must he or she be able to communicate with the student regarding the intricacies of the mechanics of calculus, but the calculus tutor must also be able to help the calculus student overcome the conceptual difficulties that are part and parcel of the early learning of calculus.
When evaluating a prospective calculus tutor, you must inquire about the level of calculus learning that he or she possesses. It is almost impossible for someone who has only had one calculus course to fully appreciate the subtlety of the subject and be able to present it in a manner that is easily digestible.
Therefore, a good calculus tutor should have a university degree in either mathematics or the physical sciences, as these are typically the only students who learn calculus to a high enough level to be able to communicate it fully. As with all types of tutoring, a calculus tutor must be a skilled communicator. Even the most mathematically gifted person makes a lousy calculus tutor if he or she is unable to communicate effectively.
It is a good idea to schedule a few introductory tutoring sessions where you sit in with your child and the calculus tutor so that you can observe how they interact and can make certain that the calculus tutor is able to interact with your student in a way that ensures that your student will benefit from the sessions.
A good calculus tutor must have a high level of proficiency in advanced mathematics and must also be a skilled and effective communicator. This combination of requirements means that it can be difficult indeed to find the right calculus tutor. However, if your student is having difficulties, the search can be well worth the effort.
Jane Saeman runs an In-Home Tutoring service called Aim High Tutors. Find out about how to help your student reach their full potential at http://www.aimhightutors.com/blog .
