Borland Educational News and Views

Thursday, February 01, 2007

Test Dates: 2007-2008

Having a clear test preparation plan is crucial in achieving success on major standardized tests like the SAT, SAT2, ACT, PSAT, SSAT, and HSPT.

Testing dates scheduled during the 2007-2008 school year have now been released for most of these tests.

It's time to select the test dates that work best from the list below, and arrange your plans accordingly.

"Plan your work, and work your plan."

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ACT Dates: 2007-2008

6/9/07 (Registration: 5/4/07; late registration: 5/18/07.)

9/15/07 (Registration: 8/10/07; late registration: 8/24/07.)

10/27/07 (Registration: 9/21/07; late registration: 10/5/07.)

12/8/07 (Registration: 11/2/07; late registration: 11/15/07.)

2/9/08 (Registration: 1/4/08; late registration: 1/18/08.)

4/12/08 (Registration: 3/7/08; late registration: 3/21/08.)

6/14/08 (Registration: 5/9/08; late registration: 5/23/08.)

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HSPT Dates: 2007-2008

Test dates vary. The most common dates are in the fall and spring.

Contact high school admissions departments to confirm test and registration dates.

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PSAT Dates: 2007-2008

10/17/07 or 10/20/07

Contact high school to confirm test and registration dates.

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SAT Dates: 2007-2008

10/6/07 (Registration: 9/10/07; late registration: 9/14/07.)

11/3/07 (Registration: 10/2/07; late registration: 10/11/07.)

12/1/07 (Registration: 10/30/07; late registration: 11/8/07.)

1/26/08 (Registration: 12/26/07; late registration: 1/4/08.)

3/1/08 (Registration: 1/29/08; late registration: 2/7/08.)

5/3/08 (Registration: 4/1/08; late registration: 4/10/08.)

6/7/08 (Registration: 5/6/08; late registration: 5/15/08.)

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SAT2 Dates: 2007-2008

10/6/07 (Registration: 9/10/07; late registration: 9/14/07.)

11/3/07 (Registration: 10/2/07; late registration: 10/11/07.)

12/1/07 (Registration: 10/30/07; late registration: 11/8/07.)

1/26/08 (Registration: 12/26/07; late registration: 1/4/08.)

5/3/08 (Registration: 4/1/08; late registration: 4/10/08.)

6/7/08 (Registration: 5/6/08; late registration: 5/15/08.)

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SSAT Dates: 2007-2008

10/18/07

11/10/07

12/8/07

1/12/08

2/9/08

3/8/08

4/12/08

6/14/08

(Registration and late registration dates to be announced.)

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Contact Chris

borlandeducational.com

Monday, January 01, 2007

Biggest SAT Score Dip In 31 Years

Are recently released national score results an anomaly, or further evidence that the SAT is a on the way out?

My vote is with the latter conclusion.

Ever since the Princeton Review and others began to expose the glaring weaknesses and basic uselessness of the SAT as an assessment of “college readiness” two decades ago, this dinosaur of the standardized testing universe has been racing toward extinction at an ever-increasing pace.

The administrators of the SAT1 recently debuted another major rewrite of the test (the third such revision in approximately 20 years undertaken) out of frustration with truth tellers like the Princeton Review and desperation caused by threats from the likes of U.C. Berkeley and others to drop the SAT from their admission requirements.

There’s still a bit of life in the old beast ... but the writing is on the wall. I give the SAT around 10 years to go the way of the Dodo. We shall see.

A Washington Post article begins:

“The first national results from the revamped SAT show the biggest annual drop in reading scores in 31 years and a significant edge for female students over males on the new writing section of the test, the College Board reported yesterday.

The report on SAT scores for the high school Class of 2006 illuminated how the introduction of the writing section – including a much-dreaded essay question – and revisions to the mathematics and reading sections have changed an assessment tool still used for admissions by most colleges and universities.”

For the complete text of the article, click here.

Another article on the same news item is found here.

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Contact Chris

borlandeducational.com

Friday, December 01, 2006

Are Public Schools Outperforming Private Schools?

A recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle reported findings indicating that the significant extra expense involved in sending children to private schools could, in fact, be a waste of money.

Apparently, test scores are showing that public school students may actually be getting a better education than those attending private schools, (especially conservative Christian schools).

While this seems to fly in the face of “common sense,” the numbers are what they are, and they don’t seem to support the notion that (generally speaking) private schools are better than public schools; indeed, they seem to support the opposite conclusion.

Below is an excerpt from the beginning of the article:

“(07-15) 04:00 PDT Washington - The federal Education Department reported Friday that, in reading and math, children attending public schools generally do as well as or better than comparable children in private schools. The exception was in eighth-grade reading, where the private-school children did better.

The report, which compared fourth- and eighth-grade reading and math scores from nearly 7,000 public schools and more than 530 private schools in 2003, also found that conservative Christian schools lagged significantly behind public schools when it came to eighth-grade math.”

To read the article in its entirety, click here.

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Contact Chris

borlandeducational.com

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

SSAT Dates: 2006-2007

More test date info.

The 2006-2007 SSAT test dates are as follows:

10/14/06, 11/11/06, 12/9/06, 1/6/07, 2/3/07, 3/3/07, 4/21/07, and 6/9/07.

To register for the SSAT and view late registration deadlines for each currently scheduled administration of the SSAT, go to: http://www.ssat.org/ and click on “TEST CALENDAR” near the center-top of the page.

Complete details about the SSAT are found elsewhere on the same site.

The fall dates will soon be upon us. Don’t wait till the last minute to register! Make your plans and mark your calendar asap.

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Contact Chris

borlandeducational.com

Sunday, October 01, 2006

FREE - Federal Educational Resources

Some government Web sites are better than others ... here’s a good one:

http://www.ed.gov/free/index.html.

This large, well organized U.S. Department of Education web site contains a wide variety of educational resources for students, parents, teachers, and administrators.

The section on science (in the sidebar on the left side of the home page) is particularly interesting and filled with annotated links to a variety of science sites. Other sections (Social Studies, Language Arts, etc.) also look promising.

Check it out!

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Contact Chris

borlandeducational.com