Private Summer Schools Stir Controversy In California

 

The Los Angeles Times (7/12, Ceasar) reports the popularity of high school summer courses run by nonprofit associations in “affluent areas” has prompted a debate on education inequality. Nonprofits lease facilities from high schools and charge hundreds of dollars per course for students to take classes that will make them more attractive on college applications. The organizations who run the classes “sidestep state law” by remaining independent of the school districts in which they teach. Critics argue that the courses “private public school, undercut California’s guarantee of a free public education for all and contribute to an already wide inequity in educational opportunity.”

ACT Announces Changes To Scoring

 

The Washington Post (6/6, Anderson) reports that ACT announced on Thursday that students “will face a more complex task if they choose to write an essay and will receive new scores for English language arts and the combined fields of science and mathematics.” The article reports that these and other changes “show the ACT is evolving as the rival SAT admissions test undergoes a major redesign that will debut in early 2016.”

New SAT Part Of Shift Toward Testing Achievement Instead Of Aptitude

The Washington Post (4/22, Anderson) reports that that the new SAT is part of a “long move away from testing for aptitude as the College Board seeks to tie the exam more closely to what students learn in the classroom.” Cyndie Schmeiser, the College Board’s chief of assessment, commented that “the College Board has moved toward achievement testing in response to the need for better information about student readiness.” Jeremiah Quinlan, Yale University’s dean of undergraduate admissions and an adviser to college board, said “this test could be even more predictive of success in college than it has been in the past.” Bob Schaeffer, a spokesman for the National Center for Fair & Open Testing, criticized the new test, stating that “SAT scores will remain a better measure of family income than of college readiness.” In an opposite opinion, Stuart Schmill, dean of admissions for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said the new focus “made sense,” as it measures what students “should be” learning in high school.

Editorial: STEM Topics Important For Students

An editorial in the Rocky Mount (NC) Telegram (4/14) notes that students at Englewood Elementary School participated in various activities “to expose them to science, technology, engineering, art and math in a fun way.” The paper argues that students exposed to STEM fields at a young age “will be more likely to develop an appreciation for those” subjects. The editorial also notes that Nash Community College will also host several science and technology themed events over the summer for middle school and high school students. The Telegram concludes that it is important for students to have “knowledge and appreciation of STEM topics” in order to participate in the global economy.

Duncan’s Support For Later High School Start Times Noted

Holly Yettick writes at the Education Week (3/19) “Inside School Research” blog that a recent report from the University of Minnesota “has helped to awaken a nationwide movement to start school later so students can get more sleep,” noting that the report indicates that starting high school after 8:30 a.m. can improve academic performance, boost attendance rates, and reduce “teenagers’ car crashes in the areas surrounding schools.” The piece notes that interest in moving back high school start times got a boost from Education Secretary Arne Duncan last fall, when he suggested that “secondary schools start later so students can get more sleep.” Yettick quotes Duncan saying, “There’s a lot of research and common sense that lots of teens struggle to get up ... to get on the bus. I’d love to see more districts, you know, seriously contemplating a later start time.” The New York Times (3/14, Hoffman) also mentions Duncan’s support for the concept at its “Well” blog.

Petrilli: CTE Offers Alternative Track To Self-Sufficiency

Michael J. Petrilli, executive vice president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, research fellow at the Hoover Institution, and executive editor of Education Next, writes at Slate Magazine (3/19) that schools should be recognizing that not all students are fitted for college and that pushing as many as possible into college may harm them as so few actually graduate with a degree. He urges the development of “another pathway” for students who simply are not prepared for college, but who still need a means of preparing for employment that will allow them to support themselves. That pathway, he says, is “high-quality career and technical education, ideally the kind that combines rigorous coursework with a real-world apprenticeship, and maybe even a paycheck.”

Delayed School Start Times May Benefit Teens

In a front page article, the New York Times (3/14, Hoffman) reports that across the US, numerous school districts have moved high-school starting times to later in the day to accommodate the fact that adolescents “are developmentally driven to be late to bed, late to rise.” University of Minnesota researchers, “funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, studied eight high schools in three states before and after they moved to later start times in recent years.” In a report published March 12, “they found that the later a school’s start time, the better off the students were on many measures, including mental health, car crash rates, attendance and, in some schools, grades and standardized test scores.”

        The AP (3/14) also covers this story.