The American middle class is shrinking, as educational achievement plateaus at the average level of attainment and more middle class families compensate the lagging educational achievement with discretionary spending on extracurricular activities and supplemental academic support services. By the late 1970’s, the collapse of American manufacturing sector made way for the meteoric rise of the…
“Plans don’t survive contact with the enemy”, pith advice on the dawn of the new school year, especially when the enemy is multifacted and the commander is a novel virus. Those who will thrive in the 2020-21 school year, are the one’s who are flexible and lean into the disruption, instead of exhausting themselves trying…
Life is divided into three terms – that which was, which is, and which will be. Let us learn from the past to profit by the present, and from the present, to live better in the future. –William Wordsworth We crave static and loathe dynamic, but today’s reality flips that paradigm on its head. Yet,…
The American middle class is shrinking in comparison to nations around the world. Yesterday, I proffered the view that those Americans wishing to sustain or aspiring to achieve a middle class standard of living may not be obtaining the academic preparation necessary, especially as indicated by their average performance on international educational assessments. Yet, their…
Like I posited a few days ago, “Why is the American middle class shrinking?” Firstly, it can be argued that personal success, whether economic or humanistic, requires the acquisition of knowledge and the application of such knowledge. However, rote memorization and regurgitation on cue, skills necessary to compete in the modern American academic meritocracy, yet…
The American middle class is shrinking. Why?
In the seventh post in the series, Put Down Your #2 Pencils: The University of California Eliminates SAT/ACT Scores, Comprehensive Review, where each of the 14 Comprehensive Review points which UC admissions officers use as a guide for their application evaluations are analyzed, high school students can understand how they’ll be assessed during the admissions…
As college students prepare to return to college campuses, scattered in varying locales around the nation, to begin the 2020-21 school year, it will not be business as usual given the surrounding outbreak of the novel COVID-19 coronavirus; therefore, monitoring the fluid situation, locally, regionally and nationally, will be of vital importance. The New York…
After students received their May 2020 Advanced Placement (AP) scores in mid-July 2020, many were distressed to earn scores less than expected, and now, with their parents’ support, are appealing their scores. Student’s disappointment about their scores simply compounds an existing dismay, after enduring the multitude of technical issues during the administration of the May…
In the current economic backdrop, where the median view of economists predict a near 5% year over year decline in GDP (total amount of goods and services produced in the American economy) for 2020 (officially a recession), where both initial and continuing unemployment claims stubbornly loom above their longer run average, and though the economy…
Many are doing more with less, while living through the global, systemic retreat from “life as we knew it”, induced by a virus we cannot see. For some, though, doing the “same with less” is now their life’s maxim, having accepted substantial pay cuts to remain employed during the current economic upheaval. As Megan Casella…
Teenagers throughout the generations have created their own iteration of the English language. Gen X’ers’ “rads”, “gag me with a spoon”s, and “psyche!”s, have given way to Gen Z’ers’ “lit”, “we love that”, and “nunya”. Ya feel me? Well, thankfully, Massachusetts teacher, Mr. James Callahan created a Gen Z dictionary for those of us challenged…
In response to the COVID-induced disruption of education, the college admissions process is changing. Many parents and students are now questioning how applicants will be evaluated for Fall 2021 admissions and in years beyond. Traditional metrics for evaluating admissions, like GPA, are less reliable, given many high schools implemented Pass/No Pass-style marks in spring 2020,…
Being our authentic selves often requires courage. And, for college applicants who will write their autobiography many times over in their college essays this fall, knowing themselves can be a tall order, but a challenge that can and must be overcome. In order to qualify for college admissions, students have to satisfy a standard set…
Until mid-March 2020, parents and students each had defined roles and processes when working together to manage a student’s education. Yet, the COVID-induced closure of school campuses and the subsequent implementation of distance learning, upended a well-worn family dynamic. During a typical Pre-COVID school day, all students had a ready-made structure to manage their academic…
