Critical thinking

The Washington Post examines the elements of critical thinking and how to foster it. Writer Valerie Strauss notes, "What teachers and parents should do, experts say, is make sure students know the difference between memorizing material and understanding it, that students are open to different ways of thinking and that they learn as much as they can about as much as they can." Visit here to read the full report.

Excerpt:

It might, in fact, be easier to say what critical thinking is not. It is not simply being critical or asking a lot of questions, or being analytical or logical. There is more involved, as is suggested by the phrase's Greek roots: "kriticos," or discerning judgment, and "kriterion," or standards.

*Raise vital questions and problems, formulating them clearly and precisely.
*Gather and assess relevant information, using abstract ideas to interpret effectively.
*Reach well-reasoned conclusions and solutions and test them against relevant criteria and standards.
*Think open-mindedly within alternative systems of thought.
*Communicate effectively with others to solve complex problems.

"The easiest way to encourage critical thinking is to force [students] to question everything."

"Question me, question their parents, their pastor, everything," he said. "It doesn't mean you can't believe, but you must question. Is it true? Is it opinion? Is it justified by fact? . . . Students eventually learn to analyze. Some will do it better than others, but you can always get them to at least question."

Unprepared freshmen

60 University of Washington professors signed on an open letter to voice their concern about incoming freshmen's readiness for college level studies. Click here to read the full report.

Many college freshmen can't do basic math, and some instructors are dumbing down their classes to accommodate them, a group of University of Washington math, science and engineering professors warned in an open letter released Thursday.

"This is a big issue for us at the University of Washington," said Cliff Mass, a professor in the UW's atmospheric sciences department who gathered the 60 signatures on the letter.
He and his colleagues have noticed a rising number of students in their freshman classes who are unable to solve math problems at even a middle school level, indicating there are serious problems with how the subject is taught in the state, he said.

Physics Department Chairman David Boulware said he co-signed the letter because he's appalled that students don't have a better grasp on math by the time they get to college.
"They're confounded by simple algebra," he said.

That fat envelope from your college is conditional

Slackers, beware! That fat envelope is conditional. If your grades drop, some colleges won't hesitate to take it back.

That'w what New York Times Upfront reported on Feb 25, 2008.

You may have gotten a thick envelope with a congratulatory letter from the college admissions office. You may have told everyone where you're going. You're in, but remember: You're not done.

After being accepted at Franklin & Marshall College, in Lancaster, Pa., Isa Valera spent her last semester of high school doing everything except studying. When she wasn't at her two jobs, she focused on the prom and graduation from Frederick Douglass Academy in the Bronx, N.Y. Her grades fell from 80s and 90s to "barely passing."

Just weeks before classes began, the college got in touch: Admissions was rethinking her acceptance. Valera was ultimately allowed to enroll, but only after she had written a contrite letter and an additional essay, and agreed to meet monthly with the dean of admissions.

"Senioritis" has infected the college-bound since, oh, forever. But with record numbers of applicants and long waiting lists, colleges are in a better position to insist that students stay focused. More schools now check midyear and final transcripts, mailing warnings or calling students with fallen averages. With some colleges rescinding admission offers, the message that a college acceptance is conditional is finally getting through.

The University of Colorado at Boulder rescinded admission for 45 students in 2006.

The University of Washington revoked acceptances for 23 freshmen with poor final grades, and sent out 180 warning letters telling students the school was unhappy with their senior-year effort.

Philip A. Ballinger, Washington's admissions director, sees it as "a matter of fairness."
"If certain students decided they didn't want to be students their senior year, we shouldn't have them here," he explains.

Colleges don't receive final transcripts until June or July and may revoke admission as late as July or August--after students have given up spots at other colleges and have few options.

Free tuition @ Stanford University

Stanford University announced this morning that the school will give free tuition and free room and board to students from lower and middle-income families who meet certain guidelines, under an expanded financial-aid program. Visit here for detail.

Stanford is adding $20.7 million to its financial aid program - the largest single increase in the school's history - a move that means students from families with incomes of less than $100,000 will no longer pay tuition.

Students whose family incomes are less than $60,000 will also not have to pay the costs of room, board and other expenses.

"Families with incomes above $100,000 are going to see much more generous treatment than they have in previous years. We'll still be doing a traditional analysis of their need. We've changed some of the ways we look at that, so it's a more generous assessment."

Are you ready for college writing?

According to a survey conducted by the Chronicl of Higher Education, 94% of college professors said that incoming freshmen are not prepared to tackle college level writing. Many educators blame high schools that they don't provide students with a writing intensive curriculum.

Tuft University's student newspaper reported this:

Dave Valdes-Greenwood, an English lecturer and first-year writing teacher at Tufts, said that even AP English courses can leave students' writing skills lacking. Valdes-Greenwood explained that AP writing, though advanced, is still not on the same level as college writing."Honestly, the AP students I have had tend to have a greater wealth of references and past models to work from, but many of them still find the adjustment to college writing [to be] hard,"

"What often trips up an AP student is discovering that good high school writing is still high school writing - I can't tell you the number of students I've had who never got less than an A before their first paper in my class," he said.

"The main difference is that much high school writing is very unadorned - thesis, a body, a conclusion - while better college writing involves more style and sophistication."

Here is something to think about:

“Regardless of a student’s major, the ability to formulate and analyze arguments, both orally and in writing, is absolutely essential to academic success … . We can develop these skills at the postsecondary level, but students need to get a solid foundation in these basics when they are in high school, or they will fall behind quickly in college.”
-English professor, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

"It is a myth that mathematics and math-dependent majors in college do not require strong reading and writing skills. Students have to be able to comprehend complex informational text so they can identify which mathematical operations and concepts to apply to solve a particular problem."
-Economics professor, San Francisco State University

"You can be an excellent mathematician, but if you don't have a complement of verbal skills ... you’ll never be promoted. If you’re looking for high performance, you have to marry the two.
-Supervisor at a small engineering office

Princeton University creates a "gap year" program

Princeton University will be the first school to create a program for students who opt to take a "gap year" before checking into college according to the New York Times article. "Gap Year" means "a period of time taken by a student to travel or work, often after high school or before starting graduate school, as a break from formal education" and it was started in the UK in the 1960s when college-bound students traveled to India on the infamous Hippie Trails.

Here is the news excerpt:

Princeton's president, Shirley M. Tilghman, said in an interview that such a program would give students a more international perspective, add to their maturity and give them a break from academic pressures. She called it a year of "cleansing the palate of high school, giving them a year to regroup."

"People are too young when they start college," said Allan E. Goodman, president of the Institute of International Education. "This way, they would have a year to mature, and they can do something constructive."

Some of you may want to take a gap year to think clearly about what you want to get out of your college education, and your course of study and future career plans.

Asian-Americans face tough time in college admissions

Harvard University's student newspaper Crimson reported that Asian-Americans face a higher wall in college admissions in spite of their strong academic performances:

In a system where one group is deemed "overrepresented," such as Asian Americans under current admissions schemes, it is inevitable that other "underrepresented" groups will gain ground...

In 1990, the federal government investigated Harvard for discriminating against Asian applicants. The investigation found that lower admission rates for Asians—despite somewhat stronger academic credentials—could be attributed to legacy and athlete preferences, which primarily benefited white applicants.

You may want to visit this website which deals with a variety of issues related to Asian-Americans, including college, law school, and medial school admissions.

Reading in the digital era

The renowned Harvard professor Howard Gardner wrote an article on "reading in the new digital media era" for Washington Post. He wrote:

Even in the new digital media, it's essential to be able to read and write fluently and, if you want to capture people's attention, to write well. Of course, what it means to "write well" changes: Virginia Woolf didn't write the same way that Jane Austen did, and Arianna Huffington's blog won't be confused with Walter Lippmann's columns. But the imaginative spheres and real-world needs that all those written words address remain...

Nowadays, as clinical psychologist Sherry Turkle has pointed out, young people seem to have a compulsion to stay in touch with one another all the time; periods of lonely silence or privacy seem toxic. If this lust for 24/7 online networking continues, one of the dividends of book reading may fade away. The wealth of different literacies and the ease of moving among them -- on an iPhone, for example -- may undermine the once-hallowed status of books.

In short, no matter which media we choose to communicate one another and increase our cognitive power, the message is clear: "Do not stop reading."

Is college ranking important for you?

The recent report, UCLA Freshman survey: Fall 2007, says that many college applicants (82.4%) do not consider national rankings provided by major news magazines like US News & Report as important as college presidents and admissions deans would have believed.

Here is the actual UCLA Survey question and top 15 reasons that this conclusion was based on.

Q. Reasons noted as "very important" in influencing a student's decision to attend this particular college:

• College has very good academic reputation 63.0%
• This college's graduates get good jobs 51.9%
• A visit to the campus 40.4%
• I was offered financial assistance 39.4%
• Wanted to go to a college this size 38.9%
• College has a good reputation for social activities 37.1%
• The cost of attending this college 36.8%
• Grads get into good grad/professional schools 34.1%
• Wanted to live near home 19.2%
• Rankings in national magazines 17.6%
• Information from a website 17.0%
• Parents wanted me to go to this school 13.0%
• Admitted early decision and/or early action 11.4%
• Could not afford first choice 9.7%
• High school counselor advised me 9.0%

Gender biased college admissions

• Student A: Male, GPA 3.6 with 4 APs, SAT 2050
• Student B: Female, GAP 3.7 with 5 APs, SAT 2100

Who do you think has an edge to get into a competitve college that has the student body ratio of female and male, 68% vs. 32%. Of course, any college that struggles with the shortage of qualified male students will choose student A to balance their student body. That's what the researchers at US News & World Report found:

When researchers at US News & World Report magazine analyzed data from more than 1,400 four-year colleges and universities, they found that in the past decade, many schools had maintained gender balance by admitting many more men than women, even when the women candidates were more qualified.

In addition to gender, race, income, geographical distributions, institutional needs, and many other factors play a crucial role in college admission process. No wonder then, no one knows for sure why certain students with impeccable records don't make while some with umpressed achievements still penetrate the narrow college gate.

Your motivation fueld by money: does it work for you?

Let say, your school will give you $50 when you raise your scores by 20%. Would you study hard to earn the reward? How about $110 when you sign up for tutoring sessions in your school? How about you make $8 an hour by attending the after-school math and science tutorial session? Believe it or not, they are true stories according to Education Week's report.

Excerpt:

The program will award 10th and 11th graders who have failed at least one of their state graduation exams $25 if they show a 5 percent increase on the first of their benchmark assessments, which students take throughout the year.

Students are then eligible to earn another $35 if they increase their scores by an additional 15 percent on the next benchmark assessment, and $50 if they raise their scores by another 20 percent after that, bringing their total potential earnings to as much as $110 a year.

The students earn $8 an hour by attending the after-school math and science tutorial sessions for up to four hours a week, and they can earn a bonus—$75 for 8th graders and $125 for 11th graders—if they achieve at least a B average in both their math and science courses and pass the state exams in those subjects.

Before you rush to the reward program, make sure to read this interview with Alfie Kohn who wrote, "Punished by Rewards." Here is why Kohn dislikes the idea of rewarding your good work: "More than 70 studies have found that the more you reward people for doing something, the more they lose interest in whatever they had to do to get the reward. It's not just that rewards are ineffective over the long haul; it's that they are actively counterproductive."

Free MIT courses

MIT's "Open Courseware" contains more than 2,600 video and audio clips from faculty lectures, as well assignments and lecture notes. You can literally take those courses, absolutely free of charge. Also for a K-12 audience, they designated a special website right here. The site includes high school classes such as AP biology, calculus, and physics. You will find tons of help there.

One more reason to consider liberal arts college

New York University's student newspaper published an article on "Job market for college graduates of 2008." It highlighted the fact that companies put a premium on qualities like communication and interpersonal skills in their applicant. No matter where you look and whatever the career path you want to take on, you simply cannot escape from the following most wanted skills:

• Verbal and written communication skills
• Strong work ethic Analytical abilities
• Flexibility/Adaptability
• Attention to detail
• Honesty & integrity
• Interpersonal Skills
• Teamwork skills
• Motivation/Initiative
• Computer Skills

No wonder then, many employers send their recruiters to liberal arts colleges, arguably the best place to master the most important ingredients for career and life. To read the full report from NYU, click here.

Here is an excerpt:

Liberal arts majors are also in strong demand, especially as employers are beginning to place more importance on "soft" skills in the workplace. In a recent survey asking employers to rate the most desirable qualities in a prospective candidate, interpersonal skills came in only slightly behind communications skills and a strong work ethic."We are looking for candidates to be in a continuous learning mode, have a positive attitude and demonstrate a global perspective in their thinking and actions," said Blane Ruschak, national director of campus recruiting for the professional services firm KPMG. Especially in less technical professions, employers are looking for people who have acquired the suite of critical and communication skills typical to many liberal arts majors.

Should your school start later?

The New York Times editorial raised an interesting question: Should your high school start later so that you can get enough sleep? This might be a good opportunity for you to take on the issue and write your own opinion and publish in your local paper.

To read the full report, click here.

Here is an excerpt.

...[a] National Sleep Foundation survey in which more than a quarter of the students reported that they fell asleep in class at least once a week. Researchers say this is true because youngsters — beginning around age 12 until they reach their mid-20s — only start producing melatonin, the sleep-inducing hormone, around 11 p.m. and that production peaks until about 7 a.m. In adults, melatonin peaks until around 4 a.m. Trying to wake up a teenager before 7 o’clock is like trying to awake an adult before 4 a.m.

The obvious remedy would be for high schools to start later — well after 8 a.m. A handful of schools that have switched have reported beneficial results. School officials in Minneapolis say that attendance improved and students’ grades rose slightly after they changed to an 8:40 a.m. start several years ago. In Wilton, Conn., where the high school start time was pushed back to 8:20 a.m. from 7:35, teachers and parents reported improved student behavior and greater alertness.

Are you silent in your class?

Do you actively participate in class discussions? If yes, you can skip this section. If not, read this article written by a writing teacher in San Francisco area and find out "Why are the Asian-American kids silent in class?"

Also, visit here to read my article that talks about the similar situation.

Excerpts:

1. From Carol Tateishi's article

If we believe that the use of language is key to classroom learning, what might it mean if the class includes Asian-American students, such as Jeff, and significant numbers of them do not participate or participate minimally day in and day out in the oral discourse of the class? How does their nonparticipation in the active talk of a class affect their learning, or does it? Why don't they participate? What do they understand about the purposes of these orally rich classroom activities? What role might their cultures and home language practices play in their nonparticipation? And, does it matter?

2. From Daniel's article

However, taking into account differing cultural perceptions, if you do not articulate your opinion whenever opportunity arises, you will experience Jane's frustration. Class participation, through its built-in features of discussion and critique, improves student's social and presentation skills, increases the retention of class materials, and enhances quality of work.

When you compare your financial aid awards...

In spring, most college applicants will receive financial aid award from each college they applied to. Before you compare those offers, here is something you need to know about the real cost of college.

Adapted from: http://www.aessuccess.org/manage/newsletters/archive/2_08_Parent_Perspective.html

When you’re calculating college costs, there are two types of expenses you should consider: direct and indirect costs. Direct costs are generally billed by the college and include tuition, fees, books, and supplies. Tuition is the amount the college requires for your student to attend class. At some colleges, tuition is a flat fee; at others the tuition is based on the number of credits your student takes.

Most colleges have fees that all students pay, such as student union fees, activities fees, etc. Some students will be charged fees based on the classes they choose, such as lab fees for science laboratory classes.

The amount your student will need for books will depend on whether your student buys new or used books. They may need to purchase additional supplies for certain classes, like supplies for an art class. Many financial aid offices provide the average cost for books and supplies, but their figures tend to be on the low side. You may want to add 10 to 20 percent to the figure the college provides.

Indirect costs are not always billed by the college, but they’re expenses your student will incur. Indirect costs can include room, board, transportation and travel, personal expenses, miscellaneous expenses, and medical and dental expenses.

The amount needed to cover the 'room' expense depends on whether your student lives on-campus or off-campus. Dorm costs may vary depending on whether your student lives in a single, double, triple, or quad room. If your student lives off-campus in an apartment, don't forget to add the cost of electric and other utilities to the cost of the monthly rent.
Board costs vary widely, depending on the meal plan selected. . . and don't forget to factor in late-night snacks, dining out, etc. If your student lives off-campus, you and your student will have to estimate their weekly or monthly grocery bill.

Transportation and travel includes the cost of commuting back and forth to class and the cost of traveling home during breaks and vacation. If your student lives on-campus, there's probably no cost for commuting, unless they have a car. The amount spent traveling home depends on how often they come home and the method of transportation - train, bus, plane, or carpool.
Personal expenses include phone, laundry, entertainment, clothing, toiletries, etc. You should probably discuss these costs with your college-bound student and agree on a reasonable amount to cover their personal expenses.

You student will probably remain on your insurance while they’re in college, so their medical and dental expenses should be comparable to those of the last few years.

Miscellaneous expenses are costs beyond the basic cost of attending college. They include sorority/fraternity/club dues, tutoring, summer programs, etc.

Once you've discovered the real price of college - the total of your student's estimated direct and indirect costs at each college they're interested in attending - you'll be in a better position to compare the award packages from each college.

Helicopter parenting: stop the engine for your kid

While college applicants are eagerly waiting for decision letters, too many "helipcopter parents" are calling admission office on behalf of their child. Admission officers worry that too much hovering discourages their child to figure out solutions on their own, to cope with pressures, and to be resilient. Click here to view CNN report today: http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=6293870&ch=4226723&src=news

Meantime, researchers at University of Liverpool in England found that parents who are too involved in their grown-up children's lives could be seriously damaging their development, their chances of employment and of becoming mature lovers. (http://www.independent.ie/national-news/soccer-agent-parents-are-hurting-kids-job-chances-1265037.html

And, for those who can read Korean, please visit here to read related my article:
http://koreatimes.com/article/articleview.asp?id=430349&comment_yn=N

Free training program for teen drivers

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst developed a program called "Risk Awareness and Perception Training (RAPT)" to teach teen drivers.

The program was created based on an analysis of police crash reports that indicate new drivers tend to lack three basic skills necessary for avoiding crashes: hazard anticipation, attention maintenance and hazard avoidance. Hazard anticipation has to do with knowing where to look for dangers; attention maintenance with concentrating on the road ahead; and hazard avoidance with special driving techniques such as skid control.

You can visit here http://www.ecs.umass.edu/hpl and click on “younger drivers” to download the program.

For the full report, click here:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080130185654.htm

Add up those additional fees @ your college

The total cost of attending college does not end with the sum of tuition, room and board. You still need to add up costs for items like transportation, textbook, and insurance. According to US News & World Report, colleges students are paying hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars in exra for their health insurance and medial treatment.

Here is the reason:

Most campus health centers have not registered as "in network" for the biggest regional health insurers. That means students covered by their family's plan typically can't get reimbursed for many tests and procedures performed by campus health clinics.

For the full report, visit here:
http://www.usnews.com/articles/education/2008/01/31/campus-healths-hidden-costs.html

Application jump by record number @ U of Chicago

The University of Chicago received the largest applicant pool in her history; 12,381 for this year, up from 10,334 applicants last year. Many of you already know that the trend is not confined to the university. Another news from the university--this could be a good news to those who are aspiring to apply to the school next year--is that they will phase out the notorious Uncommon Application in favor of the widely used Common Application. Reason? They simply want to attract more applicants. For the full report, visit here:

http://maroon.uchicago.edu/online_edition/news/2008/01/29/college-apps-jump-by-record-numbers/

Got sleep?

If you suffer from sleep deprivation:

• You cannot think straight.
• You are less able to make sense of problems, make competent moral judgments or retain what you learn.
• You become reckless, emotionally fragile, and more vulnerable to infections and to diabetes, heart disease and obesity, recent research suggests.
  

When you have enough sleep:

• It helps your brain sort, store and consolidate new memories, etching experiences more indelibly into the brain's biochemical archives.
• It can significantly improve your ability to master new motor skills and strengthen your memories of what you learn.
• It boosts your ability to make sense of new knowledge by allowing the brain to detect connections between things you learn.

The average human being who lives for 70 years spends 23 of them sleeping. Pace Productivity, reports that 19 years are spent working, 9 in leisure, 7 in travel, 6 in eating, 3 in illness, 2 in personal grooming and 1 in religious pursuits.

Do the math and get adequate sleep!

Any questions? Visit here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120059164111398073.html?mod=djemWMP

On your financial aid package

1. Submit your financial aid application such as FAFSA or CSS profile as early as possible. Most colleges award financial aid first come first serve basis.

2. Even if your prospective college does not meet your financial needs, don't just give up yet.

3. Visit your college and meet with a financial aid counselor. Express to her/him that this college is your first choice and you definitely want to attend.

4. Explain your family's financial situation (make sure to bring supporting documents for verification) and ask for additional help from the college.

Caution: You are there to inform your financial condition and not to bargain. DO NOT BEG!

5. If you can't visit your college, write a letter to describe your circumstance in detail and send it along with supporting documents.

Employers want more than test scores and grades

Let say you graduate from college and are now looking for a job. What do you think your employer is looking for? Your transcripts, multiple-choice tests or institutional scores? Maybe & maybe not. Recent survey by Peter D. Hart Research Associates, which was released by the Association of American Colleges and Universities yesterday, shows that business leaders want "faculty assessment of internships, senior projects or community-based work."

Here is a list of key findings:

• 63% of graduates are not prepared for the global economy
• 57% said half or fewer of today's college graduates have the full set of skills and knowledge necessary to advance in today's workplace
• 40% said a faculty supervisor's assessment of a student's internship in a real-world setting would be "very useful."
• only 13% said college transcripts are "very useful."
• only 6% said an applicant's score on a multiple-choice test of general content knowledge would be "very useful."

To see the full report, visit USA Today here:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2008-01-22-graduate-assessment_N.htm

The most expensive colleges

According to The Chronicle of Higher Education (via Forbes), the following colleges topped in the U.S. for their sticker prices.

1. George Washington University in D.C., $39,240
2. Kenyon College in Ohio, $38,140
3. Bucknell University in Pennsylvania, $38,134
4. Vassar College in NY, $38,115
5. Sarah Lawrence College in NY, $38,090

The price tag does not include room, board and books. But, don't get discouraged by looking at these sheer numbers and don't give up on these schools simply because you think you can't afford them. Frequently, these high-priced colleges offer a generous financial aid package. In other words, many colleges today love to play the game of "used car dealership tactics" in which no one expects to pay the full window sticker price.

For the full report, visit here:
http://www.forbes.com/business/2008/01/21/education-university-globalization-biz-cx_bw_lh_0121colleges.html

Colleges want students with character, not just brains

Did you notice something different in this year’s Common Application form? They added these questions for applicants and their school counselors:

For Student:

Have you ever been found responsible for a disciplinary violation at an educational institution you have attended from 9th grade (or the international equivalent) forward, whether related to academic misconduct or behavioral misconduct that resulted in your probation, suspension, removal, dismissal, or expulsion from the institution?

Have you ever been convicted of a misdemeanor, felony, or other crime?

For Secondary School Report:

Has the applicant ever been found responsible for a disciplinary violation at your school from 9th grade (or the international equivalent) forward, whether related to academic misconduct or behavioral misconduct, that resulted in the applicant’s probation, suspension, removal, dismissal, or expulsion from your institution?

To your knowledge, has the applicant ever been convicted of a misdemeanor, felony, or other crime?

Now, read the following excerpts from San Jose Mercury News for their report on how some college would use the collected information. For the entire report, visit here: http://www.mercurynews.com/valley/ci_8032120?nclick_check=1

The questions are designed to help colleges select students with character, not just brains. But high school counselors worry that one adolescent slip-up - sneaking beers into the junior prom or posting a parody of the principal on MySpace - could slam the door to a student's educational future.

“Admission should be based entirely on the applicant's academic achievement and individual talent. ~”Susan Wilbur, UC's admission dean.

"Colleges are building living and learning communities - and they want to admit students who will contribute positively to those communities. While this is a reasonable expectation, this is more complicated than it seems." ~Nicole Burrell of The Harker School in San Jose

"We evaluate and consider a particular infraction in the context of the entire pplication." ~Richard Shaw, Stanford's dean of undergraduate admission and financial aid.

"Sometimes a counselor will tell us about something that didn't show up on the application because it didn't result in expulsion or suspension - but which the counselor feels is relevant and troubling…If there are flashing red signs, the college needs to have the opportunity to know that." ~Sandra Hayes, Santa Clara University’s dean of admissions

Tips for female students

For female students only:

In most college campuses today, male student became an endangered species or a new minority. To balance the undesirable ratio between female and male student, many colleges give a favor to male students in admission process. MSNBC provides an tip on how to spot those colleges: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22687407/

How can you identify the colleges where girls are being admitted at a lower rate than boys?

Each school maintains application and enrollment information in a form called the "common data set." Unfortunately, there's no single Web site that collects the common data sets from all schools. The best way to start is to do an online search using the school name and the term "common data set." If you have no luck, try performing a search with your school's name and the term "institutional research." Every college and
university has an Office of Institutional Research, which produces the common data set.
Once you have the form, you'll have to sort through pages and pages of data. We suggest you check out "SECTION B: ENROLLMENT AND PERSISTENCE" and
"SECTION C: FIRST TIME, FIRST YEAR FRESHMAN ADMISSION." Look at the gender breakdown and you will get a good sense about the percentage of men and women on campus and the percentage of each gender admitted to the school in
question.

Are you information savvy?

A British study conducted by the Joint Information Systems Committee found that the Google Generation (those born after 1993) may be computer literate but not necessarily information savvy. Here are the key highlights of the report:

• Young people don’t develop good search strategies to find quality information.
• They might find information on the Internet quickly, but they don’t know how to evaluate the quality of what they find.
• They don’t understand what the Internet really is: a vast network with many different content providers.

Visit here http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/programmes/reppres/gg_final_keynote_11012008.pdf for the full report.

Dramatic spikes, again.

As expected, three colleges that terminated early admissions program this year received record number of applications.

-----
Applicants on rise after halt to early admissions
Harvard, Virginia, Princeton results
By Linda K. Wertheimer
Boston Globe Staff January 17, 2008

In their first year without early admissions, Harvard, Princeton, and the University of Virginia received a record number of applications, a sign that their push to open up the competition for spots to more students may be working, the schools' admissions officials said.

The three universities hope that eliminating early admissions will create a fairer, less stressful process and a more diverse applicant pool. Early applicants tend to be more affluent than students who apply at the regular deadlines.

Harvard had the most dramatic spike, which it attributed in part to its announcement last month that it was greatly boosting financial aid for students from middle- and higher-income families in the 2008-09 school year. Harvard said yesterday it received 27,278 applications by Jan. 1, a 19 percent increase over last year. Princeton, with 20,118 applicants, had a 6.2 percent increase, and UVA, with 18,900 applicants, reported an increase of 4.5 percent.

William R. Fitzsimmons, Harvard's dean of admissions and financial aid, said he hoped the numbers reflect that counselors, parents, and students felt less pressure to rush to apply.
"Frankly, I think we emboldened a bunch of people to step back a bit," Fitzsimmons said. "It's pretty clear, no matter how you cut it, that this first year without early admissions has been a resounding success."

In the fall of 2006, with Harvard acting first, the three schools announced they were scrapping decades-old policies of allowing students to apply by November and learn whether they had been accepted by Dec. 15, a few weeks before the January deadline for regular admissions. The switch to a single Jan. 1 deadline for all admissions went into effect with the applicants for the fall of 2008.
In the past, Harvard, Princeton, and Virginia drew between 30 percent and 50 percent of their freshmen classes from the early applicant pool.

Early admission is still used by more than 300 schools, and is popular among students who had a top pick and wanted an answer as early as possible. But it has been unsettling to others who preferred more time to consider multiple schools.

The three schools' policies varied, with Princeton and Virginia requiring students to commit to them as soon as they were accepted, and Harvard giving students the option to say no.
The numbers of students who applied early varied at the three schools, with Harvard regularly getting 4,000 early applicants - about a fifth of its overall applicant pool.

In November, the three schools went on joint recruiting trips to educate students and parents about the elimination of early decision, a venture that probably helped boost application numbers, Fitzsimmons said.

"The message was that we're out here in November when we normally would be doing early admission to tell you we have terrific institutions, and we haven't given away a huge chunk of our freshman class," he said.

Still, Fitzsimmons and admissions officers at Princeton and Virginia cautioned that they could not reach final conclusions about the effect of eliminating early admissions. The universities cannot analyze the economic diversity of their applicants until after February when students apply for financial aid, said Janet Lavin Rappelye, Princeton's dean of admission. In addition, she said, schools will need more than one year of data to draw meaningful conclusions.

"In three to five years, we'll be able to look back to see whether this works for us," Rappelye said. "The question will be, 'Are we admitting a more diverse pool of applicants, and are they coming?' "
Also, it is difficult to know all the factors that influenced the increase in applications, particularly at Harvard, which has been phasing in changes to financial aid since 2004, Fitzsimmons said. Harvard's latest announcement came in mid-December, when most students already had sent in their applications.

Nationally, college applications have been on the rise because of a bulge in the population of high school graduates. The number of graduates climbed from a low of 2.5 million in 1995-96 to an estimated 3.2 million by 2006-07, and is expected to peak at 3.3 million by the end of next school year, according to the National Association for College Admission Counseling.

Students also have been applying to a greater number of schools at once, said David Hawkins, the association's director of public policy and research.
"It's very difficult to pinpoint any single interpretation of these numbers," Hawkins said. "Follow the money is always the rule that I go by. Early decision, I would guess, would take a backseat to the [Harvard] financial aid announcement."

But Hawkins said Harvard's 19 percent increase in applications defies predictions from many college officials that Harvard, Princeton, and Virginia would see drops in total application numbers because savvy applicants saw early decision as the best strategy to get into a school.

Yale and MIT, which have early admissions, had higher numbers of early applicants this year. Officials at the schools said it could be because of the changes at the other schools. Yet, Yale expects its overall applicant pool to remain about the same size, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology had a 4 percent increase in overall applicants.

Yale has no plans to dump early admissions partly because it saw an increase in the early applicants' diversity about five years ago when it made changes, said Jeffrey Brenzel, the school's dean of undergraduate admissions. Yale used to require early applicants to commit to the university early if they were accepted; now, Yale lets the applicants wait until the regular spring acceptance deadline.

With its rise in applications, Harvard will become more competitive this year, Fitzsimmons said. It will still accept 2,100 freshmen - 7.7 percent of this year's applicants, compared with 9.1 percent last year.

Fitzsimmons said he believes Harvard is reducing stress for some students, based on letters from high school counselors and others saying they appreciate having more time to apply.
But others say it remains to be seen whether eliminating early admissions at some schools will reduce the stress on students.

At Milton Academy, the usual 60 percent to 65 percent of the roughly 190 seniors applied early, and they just chose different schools than in the past, said Rod Skinner, director of college counseling.

"It might have been for some kids that there was less pressure. They could wait till the regular round," said Skinner, "But for other kids, they wanted to get it in early anyway so they could have something by December."

Laughter is the best medicine

Laughter might be the best medicine. According to Laughter Therapy researchers, it stretches muscles throughout our face and body; it makes us breathe faster, supplying more oxygen to our tissues; and it boosts our heart rate. In addition, it burns about 50 calories if you laugh about 10 minutes. Even some researchers argue that laughter may raise the level of infection-fighting antibodies in the body and boost the levels of immune cells. Here is something that help you exercise your facial muscles now:

Things Learned From Admission Applications & Interviews

• Answer to the question for “Type of U.S. visa” – Citibank.
• In answer to the application question on sex - - "Once; in Orlando."
• A student whose father is a construction worker listed his father's occupation as "Erection Specialist."
• One student wrote a short response to “why Flagler”: "I don't want to go to a large university, and I'm not all that interested in a really small college. I'd like to attend a mediocre college like Flagler.
• A student listed her activities as President of her Sophomore, Junior and Senior class. She was home schooled with her brother. In a telephone conversation, I asked her mom about it and she said that they indeed did hold elections and her daughter did win.
• During interviews, I like to ask about a favorite book. I had one young man answer, "Oh, I don't read books."

Early acceptance rates declined

42%, 36%, 31%...You wish they were the numbers for acceptance rates at your prospective colleges. Nope. They are the numbers for "increased early admission applications" this year at Chicago, Yale, and Georgetown.

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Early acceptance rates decline across Ivies
By Tasnim Shamma
Princetonian Staff Writer

In the first admissions cycle without early admissions at Princeton and Harvard, application numbers soared and acceptance rates dropped across the rest of the Ivy League and at other selective institutions that continue to offer early admissions.

Seeking early acceptance at a top school, some applicants who might have applied early to Princeton or Harvard in past years seem to have applied early elsewhere, especially to Yale, which saw a record 4,888 applicants for the class of 2012, a 36 percent jump from the class of 2011.

Dean of Admission Janet Rapelye said in October 2007 that she thought some students had applied early to Princeton for strategic reasons. "My concern about Early Decision over the past few years has been that students were not using it for their first choice," she said. "They were using it as a strategy."

With a record number of applicants, Yale accepted 885 students — or 18.1 percent — compared to last year, when it admitted 709 students, or 19.7 percent of its 3,594 early applicants.

Other peer institutions also saw dramatic increases in the number of early applications received. Columbia and Brown reported a 6 percent increase, Dartmouth an 8.7 percent increase, Duke a 5 percent increase, MIT a 13 percent increase, Georgetown a 31 percent increase and the University of Chicago a 42 percent increase.

Penn and Stanford were the only peer institutions that bucked the trend, as both reported a 1.8 percent decrease in early applications received.

Early admissions data for Penn was unavailable, though Penn's Interim Dean of Admissions Eric Kaplan predicted a 30 percent early acceptance rate, about the same as last year.

Before dropping its early admissions program, the University had drawn heavily on applicants from the Early Decision round in crafting each class of students. It received 2,275 early applications for the current freshman class, 2,236 early applications for the sophomore class, 2,039 for the junior class and 1,815 for the senior class.

Since Princeton and Harvard are the only Ivy League schools to have dropped their early admissions programs, it's possible that these most recent statistics indicate that high school seniors are focusing on other schools now, angling for the security of early acceptance. But Rapelye said she is willing to accept this risk.

"We literally had 10,000 students in our pool last year of almost 19,000 students who were qualified to be here, at the highest level," she said. "So what if some of them decide to go early somewhere else? We will still have thousands more from which to choose."

Financial aid scam!

One of the colleagues at National Association for College Admission Counseling warned a recent financial aid scam using a false FAFSA application website. The real site is not fafsa.com but fafsa.ed.gov. When you receive anything from other than http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/, watch out!

I received an email today from FAFSA.com stating that they had successfully filed my FAFSA for me and needed for me to fill out a signature page. I was instructed to follow a link and then fill out a form revealing my personal information. It all seemed very convincing. Years ago I did have a student go to FAFSA.com instead of FAFSA.ed.gov and they tried to bill her a substantial fee. I aggressively reminded them that she was a minor and couldn't sign a contract and they backed off. So, you might want to remind your students and their families that filing the FAFSA is always free and that the web site if FAFSA.ed.gov!

Check out your school

Do you want to know how your school is doing in reading and math achievement, graduation rates and participation in challenging Advanced Placement exams? Check out the “Dashboards” provided by the Department of Education. The U.S. Education secretary Margaret Spelling wants to promote school improvement by publishing the data.

The dashboards can be found at http://www.ed.gov/nclb/accountability/results/progress.

For the full report, visit here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/13/AR2008011303480.html?wpisrc=rss_education

Be an angular student

Time has changed. In 1990's, colleges were looking for "well-rounded or multi-talented" applications; in 2000's they shifted gears to search for "angular" students, those with special, highly developed interests and talents. For example, the dean of admissions at Duke said, "What we were talking about was making room for students who were perhaps less well-rounded and more angular, but no less talented, whose talents were evident in a more focused way...it [Duke] is also a great place for someone whose focus is on research, on the arts, on creativity." He also added, "Looking for bright, well-rounded kids is a safe strategy, but it's not necessarily the best strategy." The following article will confirm what Duke's admission officer said.

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Countdown to college: Schools seek 'angular' students

Source: The Charlotte Observer
By Lee Bierer
Nov. 5, 2007 (McClatchy-Tribune News Service delivered by Newstex)

One of the buzzwords of today's college admissions process is "angular."

Angular? What does that mean? Until the nineties, colleges' most successful candidates were well-rounded high-achievers, while today's most sought-after students are referred to as "angular" or "focused." One of the biggest mistakes students make today is not taking this new emphasis seriously.

When most parents applied to college decades ago, high school students were encouraged to dabble in a variety of clubs--be the candy striper, join the French Club, sell ads for the yearbook and be a member of the debate team, etc. Today, those "well-rounded" students would be considered "serial joiners" and would not be evaluated as enthusiastically.

Colleges are looking to build a well-rounded class with dedicated hospital interns, students that tutored younger students in French, yearbook editors and national debate winners. Colleges are less interested in jack-of-all-trades students. It's the passion, the continued interest, and the leadership growth that intrigue and engage admissions committees. "Passion"--it's undoubtedly the most overused word on the college admissions circuit, but that is what colleges say they are looking for. Helping students find their "passion" means guiding them to identify one, two or three interests or talents that they enjoy and will continue to pursue throughout their high school career, and hopefully into their college years.

Nurture the passion, not because you think it will make the difference in being accepted to the college of their choice, but because it will help develop them into a more interesting and fulfilled person.

The reason for the change in priorities from well-rounded to angular is a growing belief among college admissions officials that commitment to an activity and the ability to do it well serve as strong predictors of success in all college endeavors. The serial joiner student typically makes less of a contribution and has less of an impact than the one who is captivated and consumed by a few choice activities.

Many parents falsely believe that the only talents that interest colleges are athletics. In your effort to identify the right college "fit" for your student, explore college Web sites and identify if they offer courses, sponsor a club or compete in the "passion of choice." All tiers of colleges are looking for achievers that can make a contribution to the college community. When considering a variety of extracurricular activities, after you've determined a real and sustained interest, ask yourselves if and how your student's participation can possibly benefit a future college.

Applications from students with "spike talents"--i.e., top-tier ability or a highly original talent--tend to jump off the page. Spike talents can range from winning the prestigious Intel Science Talent Search to playing first oboe in the state orchestra. It is important to note, however, that spike talents will never make up for less-than-stellar grades for admission to the most selective colleges.

What then should you read?

Do you want to know who you are? Trace and study your past. There is no better way than studying history to understand what/why/how/who/where we are now. Here is a suggested list of books for you to start.

http://ednews.org/articles/21699/1/An-Interview-with-Professor-Don-Elder-On-Reading-History/Page1.html

An Interview with Professor Don Elder: On Reading History
Michael F. Shaughnessy Senior Columnist EdNews.org
Eastern New Mexico University

At the beginning of every year, one contemplates the books that one has read in the past year and realizes the need to delve more deeply into various books, and issues. Over the past year, I have received many comments about the need to encourage students to read more- and the need to have them read more primary sources as well as fiction, non-fiction, biographies and autobiographies.

In this interview, Professor of History, Donald Elder responds to some questions about important books that need to be read, and the issues regarding these books. As we enter this election year, it seems imperative to reflect back on our country's history, as we are surely making history now, and the current election will contribute to our nation's history.

The issue of what students in social studies, history, and Western Civilization should be reading has been continually debated and discussed over the past year. We thank Professor Elder for sharing his views, beliefs and opinions about the crucial issue of reading, and the specific issue of reading historical materials.

1) As we enter the New Year, one often thinks about the books that one "should" have read last year. As we enter this New Year, what is on your list of important books in the realm of history that SHOULD be read by adults and citizens of this country?

I would hope that all American citizens read The Battle Cry of Freedom. James McPherson tells the story of the most cataclysmic event in our nation's history in a balanced and very readable fashion.

All Americans should read Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, to see how humans have the capacity, for better or worse, to fundamentally alter their environment.

I also think that they should read 1776 by David McCullough. We should never lose sight of how desperate the American cause was in that year, and how great a debt we owe to the individuals (of both sexes and all ethnicities) that kept the idea of liberty alive.

2) Progressing along, what are some books that should be MANDATORY reading for high school students- and tell us why?

I would say that for high school students, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is the most important book about US History. Because Douglass saw slavery from every vantage point, the book presents the institution as it truly was. You can't understand our country without understanding slavery's effect on us, and this is the best avenue for gaining comprehension.

I would also recommend The Scarlet Letter, as it puts the mindset of Puritan New England into a setting that young people could relate to even today.

Finally, I would recommend The Grapes of Wrath. It captures perfectly the essence of how The Great Depression forced hardships on the American people, but also shows their amazing resilience.

3) And what are some books that should be MANDATORY reading for college students who are history majors?

For History majors, they should Thomas Paine's Common Sense and The Federalist Papers to see how logical argumentation has been able to influence the course of our nation.

They should also read Women at Work by Thomas Dublin to see how women made their first large-scale foray into the developing manufacturing sector.

Paul Johnson's A Shopkeeper's Millennium shows how religion and American society have intersected. Upton Sinclair's The Jungle is great at describing the costs that immigration, industrialization, and urbanization carried with them.

Douglas Kennedy's Freedom from Fear does a great job of demonstrating the complexities of The Great Depression and how it affected the political balance in America.

Finally, The American Age by Walter LaFeber does a masterful job of describing the Cold War.

4) Do you think it more important for students in high school history classes and college American history classes to read biographies or autobiographies and why?

I like certain autobiographies (Douglass and Franklin come immediately to mind), because you hear from the protagonists in their own words. But autobiographies are usually to a certain extent self serving, and thus have to be taken with a grain of salt.

Biographies (like those written by David McCullough or Doris Kearns Goodwin) are good because they can put the lives of their subjects into context. But the authors of biographies may interpret their subjects through their own belief system, so they too must be approached with caution.

5) Do you think it more important for high school students to read fiction as opposed to non fiction?
I have always felt that fiction is quite valid in high school. Indeed, two of the three books that I recommended for high school students were fiction. I think because of all the TV and movies they watch it is easier to approach them through fiction, as long as teachers place the books into the proper context.

6) I believe it was Descartes who said "The reading of all good books is like conversation with the finest men of past centuries". If this is true, who would you recommend for high school students and then college students to read?

I totally agree with the quote. Reading The Gettysburg Address by Lincoln, a speech of Malcolm X, or the Declaration of Rights that came out of the women's convention at Seneca Falls in 1848 definitely allows me to connect with the people whose ideas and actions helped shape our nation.

7) Given the upcoming election, are there books that you think the average citizen should read?

I'm afraid I would reflect my political bias if I did! Seriously, I would recommend The Making of the President, 1968 by Theodore White. As divided as we may think we are today, it pales in comparison to the horrendous situations that divided us that year.

8) If the "unexamined life is not worth living", surely, a school's reading list of history should be examined by parents and taxpayers. If you were on a school board, reviewing the required reading list for high school history students, what criteria would you use for the required reading over the course of four years?

I would want them to have a good balance of male and female writers from various ethnic groups spanning chronology both in terms of when the books are set and when they were actually written.

9) If there were one book you would recommend for the understanding of America, what would it be and why?

I would recommend 1968: The Year That Rocked the World, by Mark Kurlansky. It offers the best look at how events all over the globe in that one year had the most profound effect on the way that the last forty years would play themselves out.

Video game and its emotional impact

Many parents worry about the sheer intensity of violence in computer games. But today's article urges parents to look beyond the gushing blood, ruthless depredations, and mindless killing on the video screen: search your child's soul and ask, "Is this morally right?"

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The moral cost of video games
Violence is bad enough. But here's the worst part.
By Matthew Devereux
PLYMOUTH, ENGLAND

In the controversial new video game "Manhunt 2," you're required to sneak up behind innocent victims, hit them over the head with a garden spade and then use that same weapon to decapitate, them. The whole thing is pretty graphic, because the game has, well, pretty graphics. As blood gushes, you're supposed to feel satisfied that you're ready for the next challenge.

To some, this scenario captures everything wrong about video games. "They're too violent," detractors say. "And they glamorize violence. Children might be tempted to copy them." While this is an understandable concern, it misses more obvious problems with many video games today: primarily, an utter lack of moral consequence.

Countless studies have tested the alleged links between virtual violence and its real counterpart. Conclusions vary, but I certainly don't need a panel of academics to explain to me that the teen across the street isn't going to attack me with a garden spade.

Still, if you're a parent, the sheer intensity of violence in many games today ought to be a valid concern. You wouldn't let your children view online pornography, so why let them decapitate people in a video game?

Yet many parents buy their children games rated inappropriate for anyone under 17. Why? Perhaps it's a hangover attitude from the "Pac-Man" past, when all video games were presumed to be harmless fun. Or maybe they just want their kids to think they're cool. Whatever the reason, there's clearly a disconnect between the level of parental angst and parental tolerance.

One of many dubious arguments against violence in video games is that children find it hard to distinguish between "real" and "virtual" situations.

If that's true, is CNN not a more pernicious peddler of unsavory material for kids? When kids turn on the TV and see footage of soldiers shooting each other for real, is there any substantial difference between that and playing a first-person shooter game?

Years ago, after the tragic shootings in Columbine, the news media were quick to lay blame at the game industry's door. Could they not as easily have turned that criticism on themselves?
What's surprising about the media's obsession with violence in games is that it overlooks more serious lapses in values. By concentrating on the bloodthirsty and dramatic, they're ignoring influences that are much more harmful to children long term.

Take, for instance, the idea of ruthless competition, that for every winner there are necessarily losers. Regardless of what game you're playing, the message is almost always the same: Do whatever it takes to win, even at the expense of everyone else.

Imagine if that were the moral of every movie and TV show you ever watched. Would the world be a better or worse place? Would you let your children play a game that promoted such a dog-eat-dog mentality?

Fundamentally, most games operate within a moral framework: good versus evil (or vice versa). But what games conspicuously lack is moral consequence. Once you've killed someone, stolen something, or blown up a building, that's usually the end of it – you'll rarely get to see the emotional impact of your actions on the characters around you.

Every bit of mayhem becomes just another item on a video-game to-do list. Games ignore moral consequence and emotional nuance to focus on the purely visceral. There are only two types of decisions you can really make: the strategically correct one or the strategically incorrect one. There is no "right" or "wrong" – only success or failure.

Unbridled competition combined with no moral consequence eventually leads to a lack of compassion. And without compassion, humanity is lost.

What games risk instilling, not just in kids, but in anyone who plays them, is a kind of sociopathy: a dearth of conscience. Whether this might be imitated outside of gaming is beside the point. What we should be asking ourselves is if we really want to spend ever more time playing things that encourage these values. That's a moral question, one that's easily sidelined in favor of simply having fun, but it's something we all must consider as the pastime grows more popular.

I'm not calling for stricter regulation of the video-game industry. Rather, I hope to widen the debate to include issues that might not be considered if we believe the sensational, trivial hysteria of the media. By concentrating so heavily on the immediate (and short-term) effects of video-game violence, we're distracted from discussing more important moral dimensions. It's time for parents to stop asking what is appropriate for their children and to start asking what is morally right.

• Matthew Devereux writes about the video-game industry and is a former staff writer of Edge magazine.

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On Reading

I wholeheartedly agree with Shaughnessy's assertion that parents and school should provide a conducive environment for students to read more. However, reading itself can be nothing but a complete waste of your time unless it prompts you to reflect carefully and systematically, and nudges you to articulate what you have learned in writing. Think about the last time you watched a movie. Do you even recall what the movie was about? Had you discussed--better yet, wrote an essay--about it, you would have still remembered it. So, don't just read a book: think, reflect, and write something about the book in your journal. The same principle applies to the article below.

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Commentary: On Reading
Michael F. Shaughnessy Senior Columnist EdNews.org
Eastern New Mexico University

Every once in a while, an exemplary article is brought to my attention. Recently, Caleb Crain published an article in The New Yorker on " The Twilight of the Books". In this article, published on Dec 24, 2007, he discussed the decline of books and reading.

Crain first reviewed some of the salient past literature conducted by various polls and organizations over the past 50 or so years, which seems to indicate, probably quite correctly, that there has been a decline in reading. This decline is pervasive, and includes newspapers, magazines, books, and the like.

Certainly, with the advent of television, and now the explosion of movies and CD's people are turning more and more to the screen rather than to the hard cover or paper back book. Children growing up in the current zeitgeist are exposed more to the Internet than to H.G. Wells' book "The War of the Worlds". Adolescents are turning more to text messaging and e-mailing than to actually writing essays or book reports. And adults, in their stress filled lives, have little time to turn to Will and Ariel Durant, or Cervantes or Dumas.

Crain, who studied at Columbia, reviews some of the past work of Maryanne Wolf of Tufts. Wolf has hypothesized about how the computer screen and technology has affected our brains and the wiring and circuitry in it. Today, we have MRI's and other magnetic resonance imaging devices that provide a visual picture as to what is occurring in the brain as we process prose materials and text.
Certainly, those who read, succeed, and those who read well, comprehend extensively and remember and integrate what they have read are more apt to succeed and achieve in school and in life. Yet, the problem remains that we are increasingly a television society and even the Internet with the "You Tube" phenomenon in increasingly providing "sound bites" and "talking heads" to provide us with the latest political skullduggery.

The decline in literary reading is cause for concern.This writer is not saying that students should be forced to read Tom Sawyer or Huckleberry Finn but that perhaps there should be a good deal of American literature that students should be exposed to- be it Catcher in the Rye or Ernest Hemingway or F. Scott Fitzgerald or Faulkner.

There should be a consistent exposure to books of various genres and perhaps indeed, even some sort of" forced processing". Jeanne Chall of Harvard once mentioned that she had to write book reports on books that she had written and it did not kill her.

I think that there needs to be much more responsive writing done regarding what students are reading-even if it is their thoughts and ideas and feelings about good old Harry Potter.
J.K. Rowling's boy wonder has been the one bring shining star perhaps over the last twenty or so years in terms of getting children, adolescents, and yes, even adults reading again. Stephen King has carried that challenge for far too long.

Yet one wonders if there is some sort of pattern here- that only a select few writers can speak to the masses, or if there are only a few elite writers who speak to the intellectual needs of the few.
Yet, what are the needs of the many? What are the intellectual materials that students should be exposed to as they traverse their academic gauntlet from kindergarten to twelfth grade and then on to college? And what should the average college student be doing in terms of reading materials other than assigned texts in certain classes? (Some of these texts have been purchased "used" and sadly have been underlined and highlighted by some previous student who may have had a distinctly different processing style.)

Crain does optimistically state that perhaps we are in some sort of pendulum swing, and that the next few years will see a return to reading for pleasure, for enjoyment, for learning and for procuring a fund of information and knowledge- perhaps along the lines of E.D. Hirsch and his "Core Knowledge" program. And certainly any racial, ethnic or cultural group should feel free to construct their own lists of"required reading" to represent their specific group. I think of Alfred Tatum in this regard, and there are certainly others. In an educated civilized society students should be exposed to poems, plays, short stories, novels, novellas as well as biographies, autobiographies and historical novels as well as fiction and non-fiction. The "feel" of a text in one's hands is irreplaceable- young children seem to love those large picture books that transport them to a world of friendly frogs, and red Clifford dogs. The issue is how to make the transformation from friendly frogs to Mark Twain's "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County". Some publishers have exploited the issue of "feel ". The latest Clive Barker book, "Mister B. Gone" sports ancient parchment type of paper, which provides an antique feel for the book.

Educational theorists need to address the issue of the importance of reading, and the need for individuals to read not just inside school, but out of school also. My good friend and colleague from Denmark, Mogens Jansen is one of the few scholars who has devoted his time to this concept- the importance of outside reading and the need to have some type of on-going reading program. I have to apologize that with the various end of the year festivities my own independent reading program has crashed, but will be resurrected with Ayn Rand's Fountainhead. And I have at least exposed some students to Dylan Thomas' "A Child's Christmas in Wales" instead of the usual " 'Twas the Night Before Christmas" by Clement Clark Moore.

Educational theorists, as well as pragmatists need to help teachers cope with a culture that fosters "Cliff's Notes" as well as Monarch Notes and "Literature for Dummies".
Are there books that every American student should read? Is there any one book that every American that goes through the public school system should read? While children and college students are forced or mandated to read certain texts, there should be some books that should form a nucleus of American education. Who is to determine this core set of books? Or should this be a question posed to parents about to have a child? What are the top ten books that you believe that your child should read? Some individuals for whatever reason have a penchant for science fiction and the work of H.G. Wells.

Others feel the American western is the thing and others along with Shakespeare acknowledge that "the play's the thing". Yet what books have made the most impact on the greatest number of people and should these books be the required reading buffet for our students?

Crain notes that "No effort of will is likely to make reading popular again". It is incumbent upon educational theorists to propose ideas that will make reading popular again, and to test those ideas so that we have empirical evidence.

We need to have newer enthusiastic teachers who are able to say " this is how you motivate students to read Melville" and "this is how you get pupils to understand H.L. Mencken". We have to have principals who encourage Henry Wadsworth Longfellow as well as Jonathan Livingston Seagull. And we need librarians who promote not just the castle of Hogwarts, but the castle of Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast Trilogy.

But most probably, we need parents who fill their living rooms with books instead of DVD's and Christmas presents under the tree that require book marks and not triple A batteries.
Perhaps we need more DEAR (Drop Everything and Read) programs in the schools or more SSR (Sustained Silent Reading) time. And perhaps School Boards should look more carefully at the text of Alfie Kohn " What Does it Mean to be Well Educated?"

Perhaps Kohn should re-write his text and subtitle it " What Does it Mean to be Well Educated in an age of No Child Left Behind? Or"What Does it Mean to be Well Educated in an Age of Inclusion and Mainstreaming?"

John Glover and Roger Bruning in their classic educational psychology text indicated quite simply that students who see parents read, and are read to, are more likely to read, enjoy reading and procure the habit. I am not sure if Steven Covey has reading as one of his habits of successful people, but I believe that independent is critical for the development of thought, critical thinking and higher order thinking- and the more of it, the better.

One does not learn to think critically by watching the pratfalling John Ritter in "Three's Company" or Erik Estrada in California Highway Patrol or "Chips". Indeed some readers may not even recognize these various ancient television programs because they have grown up on a different generation of programming. Certain college students came of age reading Hermann Hesse's "Demian"and "Steppenwolf" and the latest cadre of college freshmen are exposed to Jonathan Safran Foer's book " Everything is Illuminated".

The knowledge of different generations DOES differ- and rightfully so. We should not expect college students born in the 1990's to know about Fernandel or even Jack Benny. Nor would they be able to name the Beatles or know who Elvis was (Presley not Costello).
But we should hope that they would know a bit about Plato, Socrates, Chaucer and hopefully Shakespeare.

Exactly how much they should "know" or remember or understand is also up for debate.
As always there are political/social and other issues. Fifty years ago, the classrooms of America, and other nations around the world did not have students with a variety of exceptionalities. Currently, in our classrooms across the nation, we have students who are mainstreamed with various exceptionalities and other health impairments. There are students with learning disabilities, mental retardation, visual impairments, hearing impairments, benign congenital hypotonia, pervasive developmental delay and disorder as well as children with expressive and receptive language disorders and delays and asthma, epilepsy and diabetes. To paraphrase Winston Churchill " never in the course of human events have so many teachers been faced with so many challenges, with so little support and training".

It is obviously quite difficult to force a student who is blind to read- we can expose him or her to books or tape or on Braille, but one cannot coerce children with autism or mental retardation to read. For children with dyslexia, or to be perhaps more politically correct, children with a learning disability in reading, abridged novels may be more appropriate and appealing or again, books on tape, or even as a last resort, movies ( although watching Robert Redford in " The Great Gatsby" just doesn't seem to translate into what F. Scott Fitzgerald was trying to say). And although Henry Morton Robinson's book "The Cardinal" was made into a movie, the movie simply doesn't capture the rich, robust language and the poignancy of the book.

I am not sure "What Paul Bourget Thinks of Us", but I am fairly sure that he would think that we should read more, encourage more reading, and perhaps even have some discussion about what we have read and (gasp!) perhaps even write about what we have read in the form of book reviews- pro and con.

I do concur with Crain that we may be seeing a "twilight of the books" – we may be seeing a differential appreciation of reading- one in which very few people actually read a book, but analyze it in depth and savor the implications of what they have read.

We may be seeing a " twilight of the books" in terms of books that required extensive thought may become fewer in number and read only by those who have the time and the background knowledge and information to digest the message and implications of the book.

We may be approaching a "twilight of the books" that require thought and in depth analysis, and literary criticism and we may be seeing what is tantamount to the cheap dime store novellas or paperback books with poverty of content.

But if things are darkest before the dawn, we may also be seeing a resurgence of quality literature, books and reading and a return to the classics of the past, present and the future. It was Thomas Paine who wrote a small pamphlet called " Common Sense" that brought about the American Revolution.Hopefully, Crain's small piece in the New Yorker will strike a similar chord in readers and there will be a wide reverberation of it's message to at least delay the setting of the sun. And it was Hemingway who wrote " The Sun Also Rises ".

Hopefully, the New Year will bring about a resurgence in quality,in depth reading.

Soure Link:
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2007/12/24/071224crat_atlarge-crain

Tour your prospective colleges, virtually.

Finding a right college is like searching for your future spouse. Just as you don't want to select your mate upon reviewing photos displayed online, you may not want to choose your college based on what you see online. You must visit them "in person" to experience their spirit, culture, and atmosphere after investigating initially through the following virtual college tour engines.

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The college tour goes online
New websites paint a portrait of college and university life, providing one-stop shopping for prospective students.
By Stacy Teicher Khadaroo Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

For those parents and students whose New Year's resolution is to start the search for the right college, some new – and free – tools are coming online to make that task a little bit easier.

The websites – College Portrait (www.voluntarysystem.org) and U-CAN (www.ucan-network.org) – offer essential information to make it easy to compare participating schools. Interested in the professor-student ratio? The racial breakdown on campus? A detailed picture of costs and financial aid? Here's where you can get a glimpse or follow the links to dig deeper.

These sites are one answer to the mounting pressure to make the often-frustrating system of admissions and financial aid easier for families to navigate. Some education advocates hope they will prove to be the first step toward building an even more comprehensive website that would include guidance-counseling components. Students should be empowered to choose for themselves what matters most, they say. And they hope these nonprofit alternatives will help reverse the brand-name frenzy fed by popular rankings such as the annual guide by U.S. News & World Report.

Just over a year ago, the report of the Education Secretary's Commission on the Future of Higher Education sounded the call for more accountability and transparency. College and university groups moved quickly to make the information they already gather more available to the public, aiming to head off potential federal mandates.

"Parents and students ... are trying to make some big, difficult decisions, so the more transparent we are about our business and the outcome of our business, the better it is for everyone," says Charles Reed, chancellor of the California State University system.

All 23 Cal State campuses will be represented on College Portrait, the joint venture of two public university associations, the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC) and the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU). "It's important for all of higher education to participate so that we can continue to gain the public's confidence about how we use the public's resources to educate America's future workforce," Mr. Reed says.

College Portrait will offer some innovative features – such as an interactive cost calculator. People have a hard time figuring out the true cost of college, and low-income families often believe college is out of reach, says David Shulenburger, vice president for academic affairs at NASULGC. "We put the calculator in so that by entering a dozen pieces of data, you can [get] a reasonable estimate of what the net cost will be of attending a specific university."

Visitors to the site, which is still in its pilot stages, can see a breakdown of academic progress and graduation rates at each school – not only the percentage that graduate in four years and six years, but also the percentage that are still enrolled in higher education or have graduated from another institution.

Debate over access
Schools that want to be listed on College Portrait also have to agree to post "learning outcomes" data. Various assessments already exist to measure how much students gain in broad areas such as problem-solving and writing skills. But whether those results should be reported publicly is a matter of heated debate in higher education.

Because of the learning-outcomes requirement, the University of California, another public system in the state, has declined to participate.

Only about 300 out of more than 3,000 colleges and universities in the United States use such assessments so far, Mr. Shulenburger says. Schools that sign on to College Portrait will have the next four years to begin tracking the learning-outcomes results before being required to post them.
U-CAN – a site put together by the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU) – offers similar information in a template. It includes links to a school's own website for details on areas such as internships and study abroad. U-CAN does not require schools to post learning-outcomes data, but allows them to link to such information if they choose.

"Given the extraordinary diversity of our institutions ... what you need is a whole range of ways to assess quality," says NAICU president David Warren. A school whose curriculum is focused on the "Great Books" is going to measure success very differently from a school with strengths in engineering, for instance.

Launched in late September, U-CAN has nearly 600 colleges participating, and many others in the planning stage. College Portrait expects to have many schools represented by the spring.
For members of Congress who have been advocating for more accessible information, both sites are encouraging. A version of the College Opportunity and Affordability Act moving through the House would set up a voluntary system similar to U-CAN.

Focus on retention rates
Judy Bracken, a college and career specialist at George Mason High School in Falls Church, Va., says U-CAN is "really user-friendly; it's a fun, bright site." And she expects the cost calculator on College Portrait to be a popular feature. But she doesn't see the sites as unique.

"The College Board has [information] on almost every single college," she says. While she relies on a search tool that her school district pays for, she says various free resources are already available.

Wherever people do their searches, one piece of data she advises them to scrutinize is the retention rate – the number of first-year students who return the next year. "That really does tell you, Did they market themselves in a true fashion?"

Ms. Bracken encourages students to shake off the pressure to chase the Ivy League or other name-brand schools. "If I can just get kids to look really carefully at what is the best fit for them, then I feel like I've done my job."

Virtual counselors
There is an effort under way to incorporate some of the tried and true advice of guidance counselors into a free comprehensive website. The nonprofit group Education Conservancy (www.educationconservancy.org) is leading the charge to develop a prototype and raise the estimated $400,000 it would need to start up such a site.

With so many students not having enough access to college counselors, there's a "dire" need for a site that will offer much more than just information templates, says executive director Lloyd Thacker, a former admissions officer and high school counselor. Thacker is also in the forefront of the movement to have colleges boycott the U.S. News rankings. "We're serving the needs of kids in a process that's become increasingly commercialized," he says.

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