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Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 5,181
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Fortunately taking the SAT is not compulsory. Well, it actually sort of IS. In a de facto sense, I mean. Yes, you can, I suppose, opt OUT of college entirely... you can opt to only attend one of the institutions that doesn't require a standardized test... or you can take the ACT, the only real non-CB competitor.
Schrödinger's cat walks into a bar. And doesn't.
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Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 2,640 Likes: 2
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Joined: Feb 2010
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This article explains how Coleman thinks about the SAT: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/coll...board_adopts_stronger_advocacy_tone.htmlWith New SAT Report, College Board Adopts Stronger Advocacy Tone By Caralee Adams Education Week September 26, 2013 There was a noticeable change in tone at the College Board with the release of this year's SAT scores. Officials went beyond reporting scores to a passionate push to expand opportunity to all students, framing it as a social justice issue.
In the SAT score report out today, just 43 percent of students were deemed college-ready, the exact same percentage as last year, with the average test scores in each category flat.
The stagnant performance on the college-entrance exam and racial gaps (see the new Education Week story here) require a "call to action," said David Coleman, the president of the College Board, in a phone briefing this week with reporters.
What was missing from the explanation about the scores was the notion, emphasized in the past by the College Board, that a larger, more diverse testing pool was to blame. College Board officials said this week that the research does not support linking a change in demographics to the lack of improvement in scores.
"Let me say in a clear voice, there are those who tend to wave away these results because they say more diverse students are taking them," said Coleman, who took over leadership at the College Board in May of 2012. "Our conviction is clear: For this county to succeed, diversity and excellence must both expand. It is perhaps the most urgent work of this next century. We stand utterly committed to not wave away results in any way by saying different kids are taking the exam. We know through advanced coursework and hard work all kids can succeed at a very high level. It's our commitment to expand that circle of opportunity."
"To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle." - George Orwell
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Joined: Sep 2013
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"We know through advanced coursework and hard work all kids can succeed at a very high level. It's our commitment to expand that circle of opportunity."
On what planet?
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Joined: Feb 2010
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"We know through advanced coursework and hard work all kids can succeed at a very high level. It's our commitment to expand that circle of opportunity."
On what planet? This one: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/30/david-coleman-common-core-sat_n_3818107.htmlDavid Coleman, Common Core Writer, Gears Up For SAT Rewrite by Joy Resmovits Huffington Post August 30, 2013 How did Coleman wind up in the middle of the 21st century's curriculum wars?
His path started at his parents' dinner table and wended through selective New York public school Stuyvesant High, making an important pit stop at his bar mitzvah. After being asked to perform a deep exegesis of his Torah portion, Coleman extracted a lesson that would guide his career: "The idea that kids can do more than we think they can," he said. Asking 13-year-olds to give a speech is a bold charge, not unlike recommending AP courses to disadvantaged kids who don't see academic aptitude in themselves. "I wish kids could encounter more stretched opportunities like that in school -- all kids," Coleman said.
After graduating from Stuyvesant, Coleman attended Yale and was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to the University of Oxford, where he studied English literature. He also met Jason Zimba, a Common Core co-writer and lifelong friend who later taught mathematics at Bennington College, where Coleman's mother, Elizabeth, served as president. Zimba remembers hanging out in pubs and playing Risk with Coleman, who spent the rest of his time studying for exams. Coleman had a competitive streak and often won at Risk. "He's an astute observer of characters, so if he thinks you can handle it, he might celebrate [his victory over you]," he said.
Upon returning to New York, Coleman applied for a high school teaching position and was turned down. Instead, he worked for consulting firm McKinsey & Company, where he advised public schools and became a fixture at New York City Department of Education meetings. That's where he met David Sherman, then a vice president at the United Federation of Teachers.
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Joined: Sep 2013
Posts: 848
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Joined: Sep 2013
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"We know through advanced coursework and hard work all kids can succeed at a very high level. It's our commitment to expand that circle of opportunity."
On what planet? This one: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/30/david-coleman-common-core-sat_n_3818107.htmlDavid Coleman, Common Core Writer, Gears Up For SAT Rewrite by Joy Resmovits Huffington Post August 30, 2013 How did Coleman wind up in the middle of the 21st century's curriculum wars?
His path started at his parents' dinner table and wended through selective New York public school Stuyvesant High, making an important pit stop at his bar mitzvah. After being asked to perform a deep exegesis of his Torah portion, Coleman extracted a lesson that would guide his career: "The idea that kids can do more than we think they can," he said. Asking 13-year-olds to give a speech is a bold charge, not unlike recommending AP courses to disadvantaged kids who don't see academic aptitude in themselves. "I wish kids could encounter more stretched opportunities like that in school -- all kids," Coleman said.
After graduating from Stuyvesant, Coleman attended Yale and was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to the University of Oxford, where he studied English literature. He also met Jason Zimba, a Common Core co-writer and lifelong friend who later taught mathematics at Bennington College, where Coleman's mother, Elizabeth, served as president. Zimba remembers hanging out in pubs and playing Risk with Coleman, who spent the rest of his time studying for exams. Coleman had a competitive streak and often won at Risk. "He's an astute observer of characters, so if he thinks you can handle it, he might celebrate [his victory over you]," he said.
Upon returning to New York, Coleman applied for a high school teaching position and was turned down. Instead, he worked for consulting firm McKinsey & Company, where he advised public schools and became a fixture at New York City Department of Education meetings. That's where he met David Sherman, then a vice president at the United Federation of Teachers. Hmm. Seems rather like the notion that 10,000 hrs of practice at anything can turn anyone into a master of it. I do believe that stretch is very important, especially for children. I just don't think that stretching automatically works to the same end result for each individual.
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Joined: Apr 2013
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I believe the specific target groups of students are those eligible for free and reduced lunch, ethnic minorities, undocumented immigrants, those whose parents did not attend American college/university. Do you have a source for that? Not readily available, hence it is prefaced with "I believe..." as opposed to, "According to XYZ and ABC...". In the specific context of high school rankings? This was actually presented in the context of "this Rube-Goldberg-esque educational machine", not specifically in the context of high school rankings. Several entities are present including news media, high schools, CB (implied as it is the subject of the thread), and the overall industry. NCLB tracks performance for several at risk categories (racial minorities, limited English proficiency, socio-economically disadvantaged, special needs) so that data is readily available.
The federal government defined socio-economically disadvantaged as eligible for free/reduced price lunch, but states seem to be free to extend that (California uses free/reduced price lunch or neither parent graduating high school).
But I doubt anybody is keeping hard data on undocumented immigrants right now, since it is such an extremely sensitive subject (Plyler v. Doe, the recent fight around laws in Alabama and Georgia that required public schools to ask about the immigration status of their students). I am unsure where you are going with this, and not following your train of thought...? However the FAFSA asks about this in questions 14 & 15 (citizen status / alien registration number) (link- http://studentaid.ed.gov/sites/default/files/2013-14-completing-fafsa.pdf) Additionally, districts may keep a folder and/or electronic record for each pupil, including demographic characteristics. Once information is obtained a body of historical data may exist even if new data is no longer collected. And I have no idea where anybody would get the data on whether parents attended an American University. When I signed up my kids for public school parental education levels were self-reported with no box to put in where those degrees came from. Nobody asked me for my transcripts. You may have answered your own question: Much data may be obtained by self-reporting. In addition to schools/districts asking about this, the FAFSA also asks about this (see link above). The American Community Survey (ACS) of the Census Bureau does as well. The ACS materials state that they verify various data points with information held by other Agencies. First generation programs have been mentioned on the websites of several educational organizations including ACT and AVID. Website content may change frequently. Various college admissions may differ in their practice of whether first generation means parents had high school only, never admitted to college, attended some college but did not receive a degree, attended 2-year rather than 4-year college, attended college in another country therefore unfamiliar with American college matriculation. Because you may know best what it is that you are looking for, no doubt your own focused research will best answer your questions/concerns.
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Joined: Feb 2011
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With all the push toward academics, we send the message that blue collar jobs imply failure in our patriotic vision. ^truth.  And really, from personal experience/observation, instructional time DOES get diverted to helping kids in advanced coursework who are truly drowning in those courses. I also firmly believe that this state of affairs has led to the horrific situation in which "advanced" has come to mean "the same exact work level as 'standard' just A Lot More of It. Because... Rigor!" Relatively few of my DD's honors/AP courses have been untainted by this phenomenon. AP Physics was one such course. Of course that one is under fire and "being revised" because it covers too much material, evidently, and the problem is that so few high school students can learn that much in that short a period of time. Now, maybe I'm wrong and my DD13 is actually smarter than 99.99% even of high-ability high school seniors, but I strongly suspect that the "real" problem with that class is that there were only 6 kids in it that COULD actually do the work successfully of the 22 who enrolled in the fall. At least, that is how many made it through Spring term. That represents two high school cohorts, totalling about 600 students. Does that warrant the conclusion that this course is "in need of realignment" somehow? I'm not so sure that it does. I think that what it DOES suggest is that most of the kids who are being groomed to THINK that they are "college-ready" aren't. Most of those kids have NO business in a truly rigorous AP course. Further evidence-- the crushing workload of AP Literature meant that only 9 of THEM finished the year, too, of the 29 who enrolled in the fall. Same deal-- all juniors and seniors. Honestly, I didn't think that course was actually "college level." Neither did my DD. It was appreciably harder than the high school level English, true, but it wasn't rigorous on a critical thinking front, inherently. No focus on ripping apart literature, just kind of warm and fuzzy "appreciation" style exercises.
Schrödinger's cat walks into a bar. And doesn't.
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Joined: Oct 2011
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Funny... when I was in AP classes, outside of math, there wasn't all that much homework. Mostly by skipping the math, I probably averaged less than an hour per school night. Sure, there was the odd project where I needed to put in a good 3-4 hours in a night, but that was offset by enough nights where I had little or nothing that I needed to do (except math, and that wasn't going to happen).
It was the kids in the classes labeled "college prep" that had all the homework, because they needed practice, practice, practice.
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Joined: Apr 2013
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"Coleman extracted a lesson that would guide his career: "The idea that kids can do more than we think they can," he said. Asking 13-year-olds to give a speech is a bold charge, not unlike recommending AP courses to disadvantaged kids who don't see academic aptitude in themselves."
... He had an epiphany At age thirteen, many kids are in 8th grade; giving a speech of significant length may be a frequent occurrence. They may be graded by teachers and also peers, following a rubric. Groups like Destination Imagination may also require speeches, as do forensic competitions and the middle school play. 13-1/2 is the age when interested youth may register with the Congressional Award, documenting their voluntary public service hours, personal development goals, physical fitness projects, and expedition/exploration progress. I personally do not see the stretch in a 13-year old giving a speech. At the same age, some of the disadvantaged kids may be driving without a license, they are stretching their learning in non-academic ways out of necessity and often unaided by knowledge of societal conventions, rules, or laws. Meanwhile some of the gifted who have that inborn characteristic of a deep sense of justice many be volunteering at low SES schools in their free time, helping kids with vocabulary as they read, tutoring them in math, encouraging them in their work, answering questions on a dozen things which these kids might not otherwise get answered in daily conversation, and talking up the joy of effort that is part of the growth mindset... just generally reinforcing that these kids are WORTHWHILE, the time with them is well-spent. Gifted kids are found everywhere, including low SES circumstances! But do their own teachers, their own families know why these kids are different... or will this be drummed out of them before high school, APs, and other formal supports are in place? I am somewhat curious as to how Mr. Coleman spends his uncompensated free time. Is he personally investing himself in making connections with the kids he claims to serve, listening to what they state their needs are, and encouraging them?
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Joined: Apr 2013
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Yet, Jay Matthews insists it's good for everyone to take AP ... To add to the list, in addition to Jay Mathews' High School Challenge Index, there are also the annual high school rankings of Newsweek, and those of U.S.News & World Report. Each methodology is slightly different, and may change from year to year.
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