Typically, high school seniors experience some form of senioritis. They’re exhausted after applying to college, anxious about where they’ll be admitted, grieving when they’re not admitted to a top choice school, dreaming about life after high school, AND lacking motivation to continue managing everyday high school coursework. Yet, Class of 2020 seniors, living through a…
Category: Education
An Open Letter to The College Board About Advanced Placement (AP) Tests
March 26, 2020 Dear The College Board, David Coleman, CEO College Board & Trevor Packer, Senior VP of Advanced Placement & Instruction: While not diminishing the dilemma of how to continue the AP program and administer AP exams in the midst of the current global pandemic, students’ frustrations about reducing the exams to 45 minutes from…
Grief
Sanika, a freshmen student at UC San Diego, reflects on her truncated first year of college. ——————————————————————————– I just finished doing panic grocery shopping with my dad in the midst of a pandemic in Sacramento. A week ago, on Monday, I never thought I would even say this sentence. In fact a week ago, I was…
Mrs. Obama Shares Parenting Advice
Our parents are our first teachers and often are our primary teachers. As such, the responsibilities of parents are great to be “guides on the side”, not “the sage on the stage”. Then, our children blossom into the extraordinary beings they are. In an essay for People magazine, Michelle Obama shared the following lesson she…
Novel COLLEGE-2020
An online, distance learning college education is not what most four-year college students and their parents paid (or borrowed) to experience. With college closures, the holistic “college experience” has been truncated, as entire university communities have been dispersed, with no late-night dorm floor existential debates, no clubs, no socializing—stripped down to simply content delivery through…
Expectation Canceled
On Monday, March 16, The College Board canceled the March 28 Makeup Test, the test all the March 14 canceled test takers were counting on, as well as the May 2 SAT test date. Additionally, the April 4th ACT was canceled. With the cancelations, tens of thousands of students’ test taking strategies for college admissions…
Lessons to Learn from The Stanford Experience, Part 2
Students are transforming how they imagine their college experiences and reimagining their relationship with their university. Suddenly, with shifts to online learning and for many students, the eviction from on-campus residences, like those at Stanford, the loss of access to libraries, tutoring centers, guest lectures, panel discussions, late-night dorm conversations about the meaning of the…
Trump Waives Student Loan Interest Until Further Notice
Updated: March 14, 2020 at 9:45 pm PST On Friday, March 13, President Trump worked to provide some fiscal relief for the 44 million Americans who’ve borrowed Federal money to attend college, including the thousands of college students attending colleges where normal university operations were suspended this past week: “To help our students and their…
Lessons to Learn From The Stanford Experience
As U.S. Health Officials, like Surgeon General VADM Jerome Adams on Sunday’s Face The Nation, advocate for mitigation strategies, slowing the COVID-19 infection rate rather than containment of COVID-19, and more university administrators, like those at Stanford University, are heeding their recommendations. We, at Creative Marbles, know that educators, administrators, parents and students are reorienting…
Spring SAT Cancellations?
Updated: March 14, 2020 March 12, 2020 Dear The College Board: As K-12 administrators close school campuses around the country due to the COVID-19 outbreak, thus canceling Saturday’s March 14 SAT as well as potentially SAT tests in May and June, it’s urgent that The College Board address a growing set of concerns. Without answers to…
Suspensions of Normal Educational Operations at U.S. Colleges
NOTE: Check back regularly for updates, as educators’ responses to COVID-19 are evolving as quickly as the virus evolves. Last Updated: March 18, 2020 at 12:27 am PST The following is a partial list of universities where administrators have suspended in-person classes and are directing faculty to transition all instruction online, as changes are happening…
College Students’ Sentiments about Suspension of In-Person Classes for Winter Quarter
Students’ reactions to university administrators suspending classes through the end of winter quarter at Seattle University and Stanford University range from frustration to mixed emotions. CMC contacted several former clients who now attend the two universities to understand more about the unfolding situation along the West Coast. While some students acknowledge university administrators’ caution in…
Potential SAT or ACT Cancellations due to COVID-19 Concerns
Updated: March 11, 2020 7:52 pm As some public health officials are recommending restricting large public gatherings greater than 10 people to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus and some schools, which are testing centers are closing, the potential exists for cancellation of the March 14, 2020 SAT and the April 4, 2020 ACT,…
Questions to Ask About Potential School Closures
As the COVID-19 continues spreading, parents and students may question how to protect their well-being, as well as plan for the continuity of their education, especially as U.S. Health Officials and regional public health directors offer new guidance to school administrators and college officials every day regarding the coronavirus. School closures and the transfer…
COLLEGE & UNIVERSITY CLOSURES
The University of Washington President, Ana Mari Cauce, announced today that all in-person courses at all University of Washington campuses will be suspended as of Monday, March 9 for the remainder of the quarter and until the beginning of Spring Quarter on March 30. Similarly, the President of Seattle University Stephen V. Sundborg, S.J. also…