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Education Focus: Report Cards 3

Posted on 2012/04/16
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a job well done

We’ve been looking at report cards, and we’ve seen that the GPA (grade point average) is an important part of the information conveyed by the report card.  GPAs become increasingly important as a student gets older.  GPAs are used (1) to determine who is eligible for the Honor Roll, (2) to determine a student’s class rank, and (3) in college admissions.

(1)  Honor Roll:  The school acknowledges its better students by listing them on the Honor Roll for the quarter.  The exact criteria for inclusion on the honor vary from school to school, but a typical criterion might be a minimum GPA of 3.0 for Honors and a minimum GPA of 3.5 for High Honors.  In college, this acknowledgement is usually called a dean’s list.  Again, the concept is similar:  students with a GPA above a certain value are included in the list.

(2)  Class rank:   The class rank is the position of the student relative to those in his class as determined by the student’s GPA.  Thus, if a student has a class rank of 8, that means that his GPA is the 8th highest one for his class.  Of course, it is more impressive if a student ranks 8th in a class of 200 students rather than a class of only 20, so many times the class rank will also indicate how many students are in the class:  a class rank of 12/175 means that the student has the 12th highest GPA out of a class of 175 students.

(3)  College admissions:  There is much to be said about college admissions, and we will cover this in greater detail in a future Education Focus.  Here we will just note that a student’s GPA is one of the more important criteria that colleges will consider when they review a student’s college admission application.  The higher the GPA, the better, as it generally indicates that a student is a good student and will have a greater chance of success in college.

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Education Focus: Report Cards 2

Posted on 2012/04/09
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Look, Ma - Straight As again!Let’s continue our look at report cards, which we started last week.  Although students are given a letter grade based on the percentage earned from their assignments, tests, and quizzes, this letter grade is converted to a number for the purpose of calculating the GPA (grade point average).  With this conversion, an “A” has the value 4.0, while an “F” has a value of 0.0.  The full breakdown of values is as follows:

A+ (97%) – 4.0
A (93%) – 4.0
A– (90%) – 3.7 (3.67)
B+ (87%) – 3.3
B (83%) – 3.0
B– (80%) – 2.7 (2.67)
C+ (77%) – 2.3
C (73%) – 2.0
C– (70%) – 1.7 (1.67)
D+ (67%) – 1.33
D (63%) – 1.0
D– (60%) – 0.7 (0.67)
F – 0.0

With these values, then, it is easy to calculate a student’s GPA:  a student who had three As, two Bs, and one C would have a GPA of 3.3:

three As:    4.0 X 3
two Bs:    3.0 X 2
one C:        2.0 X 1
20 points for 6 classes = 20/6 ==> 3.3

One of the drawbacks of calculating the GPA in this way is that an “A” in a relatively easy class (such as typing) is no different than an “A” in a more difficult class (such as calculus or physics).  This means that some students would probably take classes that are easy, instead of classes that are more challenging, because they are trying to keep their GPA as high as possible.  A solution to this is the concept of “weighted grades.”  Weighted grades are used primarily at the high school level, but not all high schools use weighted grades.

Weighted grades take into account the level of difficulty of the particular subject.  Harder subjects in general, or honors classes in particular, are worth more in terms of their GPA value than easy subjects / non-honors classes.  So in a weighted-grade system, an “A” in calculus would have a GPA value of 5.0 (for example) instead of the normal 4.0.  With weighted grades, then, it is possible to have a GPA that is higher than 4.0 (which is the maximum GPA under a non-weighted-grade system). Weighted grades help to reward the risk to a student’s GPA in taking more challenging classes.

Report cards used to be completed by hand, and the teacher would pass them out at the end of the term.  The student would then be expected to take them home for the parents to look at (who had to sign them, indicating that they had seen the report card), and then bring them back to school.  Of course, there were many students who were afraid to bring home their report cards (or pretended to “lose” or “forget” their report cards) because they were ashamed of their grades!

Nowadays, report cards are addressed to the parents and mailed to the student’s home.  Not as many excuses for “lost” or “forgotten” report cards this way!  Many schools also let parents log in and check their student’s grades at any time during the school term, as well as check for missing assignments, etc.  If a parent has concerns about his student’s academic performance, he can also request a parent-teacher conference.

Next week we’ll wrap up this little series on report cards with a look at why GPAs are important to students.

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Education Focus: Report Cards 1

Posted on 2012/04/02
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Straight As

Today I want to take a look at report cards.  A report card is an official record of a student’s grades in the various subjects that he is taking that school year.  Report cards are given quarterly in the lower grades through high school, but they are done on a semester basis in college.  Each course or class that the student is taking for that term (or each subject, for the younger students through the eighth grade) will be listed on the report card, along with the grade that the student has earned for that term.  Typical courses or subjects that grade school and high school students might have would be mathematics, science, history, English, PE (physical education), and art or music.

The grades are calculated based on the various assignments, tests, and quizzes that the student has had during the term.  American students are given grades that range from A (best) to F (worst).  Additionally, a letter grade might have a + or a – after it, indicating “better” or “worse,” respectively.  Thus, the full range of letter grades looks like this, along with the percentage cutoffs for the grades:

A+ (97%), A (93%), A– (90%)
B+ (87%), B (83%), B– (80%)
C+ (77%), C (73%), C– (70%)
D+ (67%), D (63%), D– (60%)
F

Why is there no “E”?  First of all, the letter “F” stands for “fail,” and is not necessarily supposed to be a continuation of the grade series.  This also explains why there is no “F+” or “F–,” since it doesn’t really make sense to say that failure can be “better” or “worse”:  failure is failure.

Another reason there is no “E” letter grade is purely practical:  if a student received an “F,” it would be rather easy to cheat and change the grade to “E,” since the two letters are so similar.

Letter grades are generally given to older students – the real young students (for example, first and second graders) are often given grades that indicate how well the student is progressing in learning the basics.  An example of this type of grading system might look like this:  “superior,” meaning that the student has learned the skills necessary not only for his grade level, but has learned skills that would be expected of older students; “satisfactory,” meaning that the student has learned the skills necessary for his grade level, but not advanced skills; and “unsatisfactory,” meaning that the student needs additional work to get caught up to the skill level that he should be at.

There is more to be said about report cards, so we’ll continue this topic next week.

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Education Focus: Spring Break

Posted on 2012/03/26
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Rubbing Lincoln's nose for good luck
This week, many schools are on Spring Break.  Traditionally, Spring Break used to be called Easter Vacation, and it occurred closer to the Easter holiday – either the week before or the week after Easter.  But the date of the Easter holiday varies from year to year, so in recent years Spring Break was moved to a more permanent place in the school calendar:  generally, the third or fourth week of March, making it more or less coincide with the middle of the spring semester.

So, one of the chief functions of Spring Break is to give both students and teachers a short rest before they head into the last half of the semester.  Some take the opportunity to go on a vacation and get out of town for a few days.  Others like just being able to stay around the house and sleep in, especially since they might have had several exams the week before.  Some high school students might use Spring Break to check out a few colleges that they’re considering attending.  Still others might combine education with relaxation and make it Spring Break a family field trip:  one year we went to Springfield, Illinois to learn about Abraham Lincoln and visit his home, as well as learn some things about the American Civil War.  Older students, like college students, frequently use Spring Break as an excuse to go someplace sunny and warm, like Florida, and have fun with other college friends.  Graduate students might have to spend their entire Spring Break in the library, studying for comprehensive examinations, or qualifier exams – I’ve done that, too!

Regardless of what one chooses to do, Spring Break gives everyone a chance to “recharge their batteries,” so to speak, and prepare themselves for the remainder of the semester.  But whether you are a student on Spring Break, or a working person, I hope that you enjoy the nice spring weather that is starting to arrive after a long winter!

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Education Focus: Dances

Posted on 2012/03/19
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One of the premises regarding the modern American educational system is that education has a social component in addition to academic instruction.  In keeping with this philosophy, many schools host dances for their students, generally staring in middle school.

In middle school, dances tend not to be formal – there are usually no set dates, so boys and girls can go “stag” – the girls don’t have to wait around for a boy to ask them to the dance, and boys don’t have to stress over getting turned down by a girl.  Also, at middle school dances the music is generally not performed by a live band, but comes rather from students’ music collections.

In high school the dances tend to be more formal, although there are a few that are decidedly not formal.  Also, in high school the music is more likely than in middle school to be performed by a live band, but of course it depends on the budget of those organizing the dance.  The boy usually asks the girl to the dance, but there are a couple of notable exceptions to this:  a Sadie Hawkins dance (non-formal, based on a comic strip character who couldn’t find a beau, so she chased the eligible bachelors) and a Turnabout dance (formal).

The number of dances each year varies from school to school, but there are two big dances that are a nearly universal experience for every American high school:  the annual Homecoming dance, and the annual Prom.  We’ll have more to say about these special dances in future Education Focuses.

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Education Focus: Musicals

Posted on 2012/03/12
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curtain call

For today’s education focus, I want to take a brief look at musicals.  A musical is like a stage play, only the acting is interrupted from time to time with singing – either by an individual (a solo), by a pair (a duet), or sometimes by three people (a trio) or several (a chorus).  So, a musical will have not only a cast (the group of actors/actresses performing the musical), but a pit band or pit orchestra as well.

A musical is a common extracurricular high school activity.  Although it represents a big commitment for the students who participate – rehearsals are usually scheduled for every day after school, or in the evening – there are benefits as well.  Musicals give students a chance to try their hand at performing arts – specifically, at acting and/or singing.  Additionally, most musicals also have choreographed scenes, giving at least some of the performers the opportunity to dance.  Even if a student is not interested in being on stage, there are other opportunities for participation as well:  a student may participate in the pit band, playing his instrument and thus helping to provide the musical accompaniment; a student who is good with his hands may choose to help design and/or build the set for the musical; some students may prefer to work with costuming and stage makeup, while others may prefer to work with the technical aspects of production, such as lighting or sound.

A musical has various acting “parts,” or roles, like a play.  “Tryouts,” or auditions, are held to fill the cast by determining which students are suited for which roles.  Likewise, there may be auditions for the pit band, or the band director may simply tap the top chairs in the band to be in the pit band.  Other participants, such as those involved in production,  set construction, or costuming, don’t have tryouts, as there is usually enough work to go around for any and all who want to contribute their labors behind the scenes.

After the cast has been selected, the actors and actresses must memorize their lines, dancers work on choreographing their scenes, those in the costume department start whatever sewing needs to be done, and the set is designed and constructed.  When the performers have learned their lines, everything is ready to come together for rehearsal.  As I mentioned earlier, rehearsals are held nearly every day after school or in the evening, so the cast, pit band, and production crew get plenty of opportunity to work with each other and make adjustments as necessary.  These rehearsals are not in costume and tend to be less formal, but as the date of the actual performance draws near, a “dress rehearsal” or two will be scheduled.  A dress rehearsal is formal and conducted in full costume and makeup, to make things as close to the actual performance as possible.  This dress rehearsal gives the actors the chance to get used to performing in costume and makeup, take care of any last-minute costume changes, etc.  Pictures may also be taken during a dress rehearsal, so as to have the greatest freedom in getting pictures without having to worry about disrupting an audience.

A musical generally has a number of performances, spread out over several nights; for example, performances might be Friday and Saturday nights for two or three weekends.  The first performance is called “opening night,” while the last performance is “closing night.”  At the end of the final performance, there is usually a “curtain call,” where all the performers and supporting crew (pit band, production crew, etc.) are recognized, typically bowing to the audience and receiving a token of appreciation, such as a bouquet of flowers, from their admirers (usually Mom and Dad!).  Then the end of the musical is celebrated with a cast party, where those involved are rewarded for their hard work.

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Education Focus: ACT

Posted on 2012/03/05
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In this Educational Focus, let’s take a look at the other college aptitude test that American juniors and seniors typically take as part of the college admissions process: the ACT.

First given in 1959, the ACT is not as well known as the SAT, even though it is accepted by all four-year colleges and universities in the U.S. As a general rule, colleges and universities on the East and West Coasts tend to prefer the SAT, whereas the ACT is the test of choice for students planning on attending schools in the Midwest and South.

Like the SAT, the ACT is administered on a Saturday, and students who cannot take the test on Saturday for religious reasons can request at registration to take the test the following Sunday. The test is generally offered six times a year: September, October, December, February, April, and June.

The format and scoring of the ACT differs from the SAT. Students taking the ACT are tested in four areas: English, Math, Reading, and Science Reasoning, with an optional writing portion that was added in 2005. The scores for each subject range from 1 – 36. In addition to individual subject scores, students also receive a composite score, which is the average of all four tests. All the subject tests (with the exception of the writing test, of course) are multiple choice tests. Unlike the SAT, however, there is no penalty for wrong answers, so it is advantageous to guess if one does not know the answer.

English

The English section of the test is 45 minutes in length, and consists of 75 questions on usage, grammar, punctuation, and rhetorical skills.

Mathematics

The mathematics section of the test is 60 questions and 60 minutes in length. Topics covered include pre-algebra, elementary algebra, intermediate algebra, coordinate geometry, geometry, and elementary trigonometry. Calculators are permitted, but only if they are not on a list of prohibited models, or are modified according to the ACT’s calculator policy. The mathematics section is the only section in which there are five answer choices rather than four.

Reading

The reading section of the test is 35 minutes in length, and consists of 40 questions based on reading comprehension. Types of reading passages include prose fiction, social science, humanities, and natural science.

Science Reasoning

The science reasoning section of the test is also a 40-question, 35-minute test. Rather than testing specific scientific knowledge, students are asked to read passages of a more technical or scientific nature, and then answer questions based on these passages. The questions are designed to assess the student’s ability to interpret, analyze, and evaluate the information in the passages, as well as test the student’s ability to reason and solve problems.

Writing (Optional)

The optional writing section of the ACT mirrors that of the SAT. It is 30 minutes long, and students are to write an essay based on a given prompt. Two readers each evaluate the essay and assign it a score of 1 – 6 (6 being best). Essays that are blank, off-topic, not written in English, not written in no. 2 pencil, or illegible automatically receive a score of 0.

Although the ACT is an assessment for students planning to attend college, some states, such as Colorado and Illinois, require all high school students (whether or not they intend to go to college) to take the ACT as a way of assessing school performance.

Based on data from college-bound seniors who took the ACT in 2006, the median composite score was between 20 and 21. Students who scored 28 or better were in the 90th percentile (meaning that students with a score of 28 or more were in the upper 10% of all test-takers).

There is no official conversion chart between SAT scores and ACT scores; however, some colleges have established their own charts, based on scores of students who took both tests. For comparison, the following is a chart used by the University of California:

SAT (out of 1600)……..ACT Composite

1600…………………………..36
1560-1590…………………35
1520-1550…………………34
1480-1510…………………33
1440-1470…………………32
1400-1430…………………31
1360-1390…………………30
1320-1350…………………29
1280-1310…………………28
1240-1270…………………27
1200-1230…………………26
1160-1190…………………25
1120-1150…………………24
1080-1110…………………23
1040-1070…………………22
1000-1030…………………21
960-990…………………….20
920-950…………………….19
880-910…………………….18
840-870…………………….17
800-830…………………….16
760-790…………………….15
720-750…………………….14
680-710…………………….13
640-670…………………….12
600-630…………………….11

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Education Focus: SAT

Posted on 2012/02/27
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For this week’s educational focus, I want to take a look at two tests that are important for American high school juniors and seniors: the SAT and the ACT. Both of these tests are college aptitude tests; that is, performance on one or both of these tests is said to give an indication how well the student can perform academically at the college or university level. As such, these tests are frequency used in the college admissions process, and students spend a lot of time (and sometimes, money) to prepare themselves for the test in order to get a good score. This week, we’ll focus specifically on the SAT.

The SAT is the older, and more well-known, of the two tests. The exam has undergone several changes since it was first administered in 1901, the most recent change occurring in 2005. Currently, the SAT consists of three parts, each part having a score ranging from 200 – 800 points: 1) Critical Reading, 2) Mathematics, and 3) Writing. Thus, a score of 2400 points represents a perfect score on the SAT. There are 10 sub-sections to the test, including an experimental 25-minute section that is not scored, but used for the purpose of planning new tests. The timed portions of the entire test make the test 3 hours and 45 minutes long, so the tests are given on Saturdays according to the schedule set by the Educational Testing Service (the company that administers the exam). Students who cannot take the test on Saturdays for religious reasons (for example, Jewish students) can apply to take a special make-up test.

Critical Reading

The Critical Reading section of the test (formerly, the Verbal section on older tests), consists of three scored sections: two 25-minute sections, and one 20-minute section. In this section, questions may be sentence completion questions, which serve to test the student’s vocabulary, and reading comprehension questions based on long or short reading passages.

Mathematics

The Mathematics section also consists of three scored sections: two 25-minute sections, and one 20-minute section. One of the longer sections has 20 questions, all multiple choice; the other 25-minute section has 8 multiple choice questions and 10 “grid-in” questions (questions where the student must calculate an answer and fill in the computer-readable blank). The final, shorter section has 16 multiple choice questions. The contents of the Mathematics sections are: number and operations; algebra and functions; geometry; statistics, probability, and data analysis.

Writing

The Writing section consists of a 35-minute multiple choice section and a 25-minute essay section. The multiple choice section tests the student’s ability to improve sentences and paragraphs, as well as identify errors (such as diction, grammar, sentence construction, subject-verb agreement, proper word usage, and wordiness). In the essay section, the student is expected to write an essay that develops a point of a view on an issue, and then use reasoning and evidence (based on personal experience, reading, or observation) to support his ideas. In his essay, the student should be able to organize and express ideas clearly, develop and support his main idea, as well as use appropriate word choice and sentence structure.

Scoring

As mentioned previously, scores on each section of the SAT range from 200 – 800 points. One thing that is unique about the SAT’s multiple choice questions is that responses are scored to minimize any benefit from random guessing. Multiple choice questions have five possible answers, and correct answers are awarded 1 point, whereas incorrect answers are penalized with a –1/4 point. Thus, if a student has absolutely no idea what the correct answer to a question is, he is advised to skip the question and leave it blank. On the other hand, if a student can eliminate even one of the possible answer choices, he improves his chances enough to overcome the negative 1/4 point penalty.

The negative point penalty applies only to multiple choice questions. Grid-in questions on the Mathematics section are not penalized for incorrect answers, and students are encouraged to make an educated guess if they do not know the answer.

The essay portion of the Writing section is scored on a scale of 1 – 6 (1: poor, 6: best), based on the overall quality of the essay. Two readers each give a score to the essay, so the essay’s total score can range from 2 – 12 points. Essays that are not written on the essay assignment, are blank, not written in English, not written with a Number 2 pencil, or are illegible, are automatically given a score of 0.

Originally, the test was scaled to make a score of 500 the mean on each section, with a standard deviation of 100. However, SAT scores have been steadily declining since the 1960’s: at its peak in 1963, the average SAT score was 980 (out of 1600); by the 1990’s, the average Verbal score was 428, and the average Math score was 478 – both well below the intended mean of 500 points. Consequently, in 1995 the test was “recentered” to bring the average score on each section back up to 500. Critics have pointed out that manipulating the scores like this masks the fact that compared to previous generations, today’s students are scoring poorly, and thus are not as well-prepared for college as their parents were.

Next week, we’ll take a look at the alternative to the SAT: the ACT.

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Education Focus: Homeschooling

Posted on 2012/02/20
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For this week’s educational focus, I want to take a look at homeschooling. In the U.S., it is legal to teach your children at home rather than send them to a school. A growing number of parents have decided to homeschool their children. It is difficult to determine how many children are being homeschooled, since many states don’t require homeschoolers to register. Estimates range from 900,000—2,000,000, but a reasonable estimate would put the figure in the neighborhood of 1.2 million children being homeschooled as of 2007.

As stated above, it is legal in all 50 states to homeschool children; however, different states have different requirements for homeschooling. Some states require that a parent obtain state certification in teaching; other states don’t require teacher certification, but insist that homeschool students take the same yearly assessment tests as the ones given to public school students. Still others require that homeschool students follow a state-approved curriculum, or be “in class” a certain number of hours a day or a certain number of days per year. In Illinois, homeschools are considered “private schools,” and there are only two requirements: 1) that the branches of education or subjects taught in a private school be equivalent to those being taught in the public schools, and 2) that the daily instruction of a child in a private school be in the English language. This makes Illinois one of the easiest states in which to homeschool your children, since there is minimal government interference, and parents have maximal control over what and how their children are taught.

The reasons why parents choose to homeschool are essentially the same as why parents opt for private over public schools: Concerns for the quality of education, concerns over violence in school and negative influences from peers, regards for religious beliefs, and interest in alternative teaching philosophies are all reasons why some parents choose homeschooling.

Naturally, people have concerns regarding homeschooled children. Do they do as well academically as students attending a public or private school? How can homeschooled children develop a healthy social life without the interaction of their peers in a regular school setting? How can parents offer the same variety and depth of instruction as regular schools? These are valid concerns, but they do not pose as much of a problem as people generally think. Let’s look at these concerns one by one.

Concern #1: Academics – Do homeschooled students do as well academically as students attending a regular school? Since not all parents are trained to be teachers, or even have a college degree, are they qualified to teach their children at home?

Answer: Believe it or not, the level of parental education or lack of teacher qualification has little, if any, negative effect on homeschool children’s academic performance. In fact, studies indicate that on a national basis, homeschoolers perform at least one grade level higher than their counterparts in private and public schools. One reason for this might be that by being schooled at home, children benefit from the individual instruction and attention – individual instruction and attention that are simply impossible in a class of 25 or more students. Other reasons might be that with individual instruction, children can concentrate on areas or subjects that need additional attention, rather than waste time reviewing concepts that the child has a good grasp on.

Concern #2: Social Development – Are homeschooled children able to develop a healthy social life without the interaction of their peers in a regular school setting?

Answer: Most homeschooled children in fact have better social skills than those of their peers in regular school. People tend to think that homeschool students are isolated from others, sitting at a desk at home for several hours a day. In reality, homeschoolers are generally a very interactive group, whether it’s getting together for joint field trips with other homeschoolers or taking swimming lessons at the local YMCA. Many homeschoolers also participate in co-op classes, where (for example), they get together once a week to study chemistry, or some other class in a more advanced subject. Consequently, homeschoolers tend to have better interaction not only with their peers, but with young and old alike. This is in contrast to a regular school setting, where students’ social interaction is limited almost exclusively to their own peer group, and thus is an artificially induced social group.

Concern #3: Depth and Variety of Instruction – How can parents offer the same variety and depth of instruction as regular schools?

Answer: There are various ways for parents to provide a broad, liberal education. As mentioned earlier, many homeschoolers participate in co-op classes for subjects like chemistry, physics, foreign languages, and other advanced subjects. Some colleges allow homeschooled students to enroll in specialty subjects. And of course the Internet gives homeschoolers access to information, materials, and online classes in ways that were unimaginable a decade ago. Additionally, homeschoolers have the time and freedom to pursue areas of interest to them, instead of focusing on taking classes and earning credits for graduation.

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Education Focus: Private Schools

Posted on 2012/02/13
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For our educational focus this week, I want to look at private schools. Private schools are an alternative to public schools. There are private schools at every level of education, from private pre-schools and kindergartens all the way to private high schools and universities.

Public schools are funded almost exclusively from taxing residents in various ways. Private schools, on the other hand, derive their funds from a variety of sources, including tuition, grants, and endowments. Sometimes private schools accept money from the government (in the form of grants, for example). Usually, though, private schools avoid accepting public money, because they consider it an invasion of liberty. If a private school accepts money from the government, then the government could take more control over what is taught in the school, and even how it is taught. Therefore, to minimize government interference, private schools tend to avoid taxpayer funding.

Different private schools have different motivations for being private. Many private schools are affiliated with a church or other religious group, providing religious education and education from a religious perspective. Other private schools are strictly secular, but wish to educate children according to an alternative teaching philosophy. Still other private schools focus on providing an elite or rigorous education, with an emphasis on preparing its students for admission into a top-ranked university such as Harvard or Yale. Some schools are military academies, which teach discipline and respect alongside academic subjects.

Just as there are many different motivations for operating a private school, so parents have different motives for sending their children to private schools. Some parents want a religious education for their children, or want their children to be educated in accordance with their religious beliefs. Other parents are concerned that public schools do not provide enough of an academic challenge. Some parents don’t want to expose their children to negative influences like drugs, violence, or other anti-social behavior. Still other parents may want to send their children to a military academy to help the student learn discipline and self-control. And yet other parents may want to send their kids to an elite school to give the children an edge when it comes time to apply to college.

Although each state has its own regulations governing the qualifications of private schools, in general the education at private schools tends to be as good as, if not better than, that of public schools. Scores on college admission tests such as the SAT and ACT demonstrate that the quality of a private school education meets or exceeds that of public schools.

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