Many high school juniors who will be applying to college for Fall 2022 admissions are desperate to understand whether major universities will require SAT or ACT scores as part of their applications. I would first caution parents and students to be patient and flexible when defining an SAT or ACT test-taking strategy given admissions policies regarding requiring test scores, in…
In a recent interview with Gabrielle Wanneh of Education Week, I discussed my Open Letter to The College Board about the 2020 Advanced Placement (AP) Exams. In my piece, I specifically highlighted the issues about the integrity of the the modified, online format, which as of Monday, May 11, thousands of students have begun taking: …students often share to their…
What I’m calling, “The Great Distance Learning Experiment of 2020” has commenced for nearly all of the 57 million K-12 students in the United States. In such an experimental phase, the continuity of instruction is muddled, and students, teachers and educators find themselves in uncharted waters. The old rules, like attendance policies, don’t apply, at least here in California. The…
Amidst the COVID-19 health crisis disrupting educational and instructional continuity, students, parents, and educators are asking and being asked questions about the current educational process, which is also spurring discussions about the value of education. The following is a selection of education-related news stories from the past few weeks, offering insights about the shifts in both K-12 and higher…
Lady Aberlin and Daniel Tiger sing the genius of Mr. Fred Rogers. In a short five minute song, they share that we all doubt ourselves, anxious that our differences are what makes us unacceptable to others. Instead, Lady Aberlin, Daniel Tiger and Mr. Rogers encourage us to imagine that our differences define our unique genius. May we have the courage…
A student who attends a public flagship university in California characterizes distance learning as: Chaos is an apt description. Zoom is challenging to manage and pre-recorded lectures lack humor. It’s difficult to focus on lectures… Third year undergraduate The student, like many others, struggles to continue learning, conflicted about missing friends and her life in another city yet appreciative of…
The million dollar question: How’s the distance learning going? It’s a mixed meme bag, according to college students’ own words. First, new protocols have developed for virtual learning: “When someone new joins a Zoom Chat” But, some things don’t change; no one wants to be the “try hard” no matter if in a virtual sense or not. When you log…
Educators and students, participants in the Modern American Educational Industrial Complex, are mere glimmers of the Jeffersonian ideals of “essential merit”, which historian Joseph F. Kett defines as: …merit that rests on specific and visible achievements by an individual that were thought, in turn, to reflect that individual’s estimable character…’Merit’ was that quality in the person that propelled the achievements,…
Hat Tip to ZeroHedge, April 14, 2020 If 10% of Americans will not immediately return to “life as normal” and 71% of Americans will act with caution once the “all-clear” is sounded, what will the “new normal” look like? And, particularly if parents are part of the 71% or 10%, how will we educate their students, especially in light of nearly…
To date, thirteen of the top twenty-five US News & World Report nationally ranked universities, all adopted Pass/No Pass-style grading systems for the spring term, due to the COVID-19 health crisis: Princeton #1, Harvard #2, Columbia #3, Yale #3, Massachusetts Institute of Technology #3, University of Pennsylvania #6, Stanford University #6, Johns Hopkins University #10, Dartmouth #12, Brown #14, Cornell…
