Borland Educational News and Views

Wednesday, June 01, 2011

Are Our Boys In Crisis?

Growing up has never been easy, but the evidence indicates that it's been getting a whole lot tougher in recent years for boys. While the feminist movement has brought much needed attention to issues facing girls and young women in our culture during the past two decades, a similar commitment to critical issues facing boys and young men has failed to materialize.

One result is that from 1995 to 2005 males 15 to 24 years old were more than five times more likely to commit suicide than were females of the same age.

According to William S. Pollack, director of the Centers for Men and Young Men at McLean Hospital (Harvard Medical School), psychological, educational, and other problems affecting male youths have worsened to such a degree that the word "crisis" may well be required to adequately describe them.

Rachael Rettner recently penned an informative and sobering article on this subject for LiveScience.com (excerpts follow):

"... it tends to be boys whose deeper problems are not looked into, and for whom programs that exist are not funded ... that’s absolutely true."

... compared with girls, American boys have lower literacy rates, lower grades, less engagement during school and higher drop-out rates. Boys also have higher rates of suicide, arrests and premature death.

... From 1995 to 2005, the rate of suicide among 20 to 24 year-old boys was 20.7 suicides per 100,000, while the rate for girls was just 3.5 per 100,000. Among 15 to 19 year olds, the rates were 12.5 per 100,000 for boys and 2.8 per 100,000 for girls.

An expert quoted in Rettner's article brings attention to the alarming increase in the gender gap with regard to suicide rates. In 1933 young males killed themselves 1.54 times more often than did young females, but by 2005 the rate among males had grown to 4.63 times the female rate. It's a profound and deeply disturbing fact that in just over 70 years, the suicide gap has fully tripled in size.

These numbers are a real punch in the gut.

How are we so favoring one gender and ignoring the other in so many critical areas that such brutal, heart-bruising statistics could come to reflect reality in our society?  

Certainly, our girls and young women deserve all the help and dedicated, devoted attention we can give them. But we've got to start earnestly and deliberately addressing the emergency affecting our young men, who we love no less, and who at present are, apparently, in even greater need of rescue.

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Contact Chris

borlandeducational.com

Sunday, May 01, 2011

“Provide The Answer” vs. “Pick The Answer”

Understanding the essential difference between “Provide the answer” and “Pick the answer” tests – and the radical differences in preparation and approach that they require as a result – is critical to maximizing one’s performance on standardized tests like the SAT1/2, PSAT, and SSAT.

On “Provide the answer” tests (the vast majority of tests you’ve taken thus far in school):

your task is to provide the correct answers;
your focus should be on precision and thoroughness (accurate, complete answers);
hard questions are worth more points than easy ones;
90% (or more) of your score depends on subject knowledge and 10% (or less) on test taking strategies;
you DO need to answer every question on the test to score well.

On “Pick the answer” tests (like the SAT1/2, PSAT, SSAT):

your task is to pick the right answers (i.e. fill in the right bubbles);
your focus should be on approximation and speed (general, fast answers);
hard questions are NOT worth more than easy ones;
50% of your score depends on subject knowledge and 50% on test taking strategies;
you DO NOT need to answer every question on the test to score well (in fact, most students will score much higher by deliberately avoiding the most difficult questions).

Think about it ...

If you’re earning one point on every question, would you rather spend your time answering four very hard questions or eight easy ones (it will take roughly the same amount of time in each case)?

You’d earn twice as many points by skipping the four super-difficult questions (if necessary) in order to get the eight easy questions right, than you would by skipping the eight easy questions just to answer the four hard ones (even if you're able to answer all the difficult questions correctly – which is doubtful, at best)!

So ...

On standardized tests, get all the “easy points” on the scoreboard right away. Do the easy questions first, and skip the worst for last (or not at all). If you don’t get around to the really tough questions, you’ll still have earned the highest possible score you were capable of that day, without the risk of wasting valuable time and energy on impossibly difficult, unproductive questions.

And that, of course, is what it’s all about!

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UPDATE 6/1/19:

Most standardized tests calculate raw scores equal to the number of correct answers given. On these tests, it's important to answer EVERY question, even if you have to guess. However, most students should still avoid the hardest questions! The technique I recommend here is called "Skip Guessing:" Simply eliminate answers, if possible, and then quickly guess (I recommend the "Last Letter" strategy: after eliminating, choose the answer closet to the end). Whatever you do, be sure to answer every question; you'll get some of your guesses right, just by luck.

As of this update, some standardardized tests (e.g. the SSAT and SAT Subject Tests) still deduct a fraction of a point for each question answered incorrectly. On these tests, it's best to skip entirely (i.e. do NOT answer) any difficult questions on which you cannot confidently eliminate at least two out of five (or one out of four) answer choices.

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Contact Chris

borlandeducational.com

Friday, April 01, 2011

ACT’s Financial Aid Need Estimator

Ready to do some initial research, and get an idea as to where you stand with respect to college costs and federal financial aid?

Use this service to estimate both your “expected family contribution” and “eligibility for federal need-based financial aid."

It’s free!

Click on this link to go there:

http://www.act.org/fane/index.html.

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Contact Chris

borlandeducational.com

Tuesday, March 01, 2011

Distance Learning for High Schoolers

Truly, many roads lead to Rome ... and to successful receipt of a diploma.

I myself am no stranger to "distance learning," a popular buzz-phrase signifying the earning of full academic credit for structured, supervised independent study work done outside the physical walls of a major educational institution. In fact, I earned my undergraduate degree back in the early 1980's from the State University of New York at Albany while enrolled in the Regents External Degrees Program, which was at the time one of only two fully accredited external degree programs in the United States. I remember with fondness teaching myself calculus and studying the history of mathematics though college-level correspondence courses administered by the University of California at Berkeley (UCB) and Brigham Young University (BYU).

In the old days, this meant learning on one's own from an approved textbook, completing assignments on paper, mailing them to the instructor for grading and comments, and then ultimately taking a proctored final exam to receive credit for the course. Nowadays, distance learning courses are typically conducted online, since the miracle of the internet makes possible a much richer and more efficient flow of educational content and course work between student and instructor. But the idea is essentially the same: independent study, followed by submission of course work, followed by assessment and finally the granting of credit.

Over the course of my 29 year career as a professional academic coach, tutor, and mentor, I've occasionally been hired to help high school students raise an unacceptable grade or earn additional course credits by completed various accredited distance learning courses offered through prestigious institutions such as UCB and BYU. These courses offer many advantages over typical high school classes taken during the academic year at school (e.g. being able to work at one's own pace, polish and perfect one's course work before submission and grading, study subjects outside the standard high school curriculum, etc.), and generally grant full academic credit to students completing them. Nevertheless, it's very important to first obtain written approval from your school before enrolling for credit in any distance learning course, to be sure that credits and grades earned will be fully accepted by your school.

Serious independent study work such as this both demands and fosters greater than average self-discipline, motivation, and organization, and requires real commitment of the part of all concerned ... but can be an excellent way to supplement or improve one's academic resume and develop qualities of independence, pro-activity, and responsibility so critical to success in college and beyond. Nevertheless, it may still be a good idea to secure the services of an academic coach or other capable adult to supervise distance learning courses to make sure that timely progress is being made and important deadlines are met. You've got to be committed and follow through ... but if you're a motivated, self-starter who reads well and wants or needs extra academic credit or stimulation, online or other distance learning courses may be just what you're looking for!

Below are links to accredited distance learning opportunities offered to high school students by UCB and BYU:

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UC Berkeley Extension Online

http://explore.ucxonline.berkeley.edu/highschool/body_hscourses.html

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BYU Independent Study

http://ce.byu.edu/is/site/courses/select.cfm?&TYPE=hs&SUBJECT=75

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Contact Chris

borlandeducational.com

Tuesday, February 01, 2011

When Math Is Uncool, Other Nations Eat Our Lunch

Since I attended high school in California in the 1970's, things have changed in so many ways. Not the least of these changes has been the gradual draining of rigor from math and science instruction in America's elementary and secondary schools.

As we faced the threat of Soviet domination in critical scientific fields, American schools (and particularly those in California) were second to none, and produced the most reliable stream of super brains the world had ever seen.

Today, national academic goals and priorities have shifted dramatically to raising the academic floor while virtually ignoring the needs of gifted students. The unhappy result is that the full potential of our best and brightest young minds is going to waste.

Below are excerpts from an article on the subject by Sara Rimer appearing recently in the New York Times:

The United States is failing to develop the math skills of both girls and boys, especially among those who could excel at the highest levels, a new study asserts, and girls who do succeed in the field are almost all immigrants or the daughters of immigrants from countries where mathematics is more highly valued.

... in China math is regarded as an essential skill that everyone should try to develop at some level. Parents in China, he said, view math as parents in the United States do baseball, hockey and soccer.

“There is something about the culture in American society today which doesn’t really seem to encourage men or women in mathematics,” said Michael Sipser, the head of M.I.T.’s math department. “Sports achievement gets lots of coverage in the media. Academic achievement gets almost none.”

In America today, intelligence and academic achievement are not only generally underrated; it has now actually become fashionable to deride intellectual prowess and accomplishment. Increasingly, the doltish are hailed as heroes while those with the sharpest minds are ignored or shunned as undesirable.

One needs look no farther for crystal clear evidence of the victory of mediocrity over excellence in our culture than the recently concluded 2008 presidential election, in which a gifted scholar and brilliant orator was framed as "elite" in contrast to inarticulate intellectual super-lightweights who were touted as "true, genuine Americans."

Sarah Palin and Joe the Plumber are the new models. Bushisms and mangled communication have become acceptable. Smart just isn't cool, anymore. Math is for Asians ... not for "real" Americans.

Raise the floor, yes, by all means. But don't forget that raising the ceiling is just as important.

Other countries understand this. We ingore it at our peril.

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Contact Chris

borlandeducational.com