The English Composition I course at New Jersey City University is designed to prepare students to meet the requirements of writing for university course work. The course learning objectives focus on the achievement of basic communicative skills in reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Instead of completing a traditional essay or oral presentation as the signature assignment for the course, students were asked to build websites using skills honed over the course of the semester in…
Students are often reluctant to seek academic help from their instructors, despite the fact that many of them could benefit from the help. Teachers are being encouraged to develop supportive relationships with students, and most are willing to do so. In the case of students seeking help, what we need is clear information about those teacher characteristics that motivate students to ask. Here are the top ten reasons students don’t ask for help, according to…
Goal writing is an important skill for students of all ages. Hear one teacher’s perspective on teaching goal-writing. On the first day of classes two years ago, I had students in my professional and technical writing course send me an email with their goals for the semester. I discovered they had no understanding of goals, expectations, or objectives. The next semester I explained that goals should be specific, measurable, attainable, positive, and have a time…
With Indiana’s college-going rate at a historic low, Ivy Tech Community College is piloting a new program to keep students on campus by making sure they have 10 specific habits. The program — called Ivy Achieves – aims to ensure that once students go to college, they complete their degrees. Retention is top of mind for those in higher education, especially coming out of the pandemic, said Dean McCurdy, provost for Ivy Tech Community College.…
The challenge of college can be an eye opening experience for even the brightest student, but many high schoolers are finding they don’t know basic college skills like how to manage time or prepare for a test. These are skills they missed while attending high school during the pandemic while taking classes virtually for more than a year, rarely having homework, and most tests being open book. These struggles can hit college students hard in…
College isn’t for everyone, many argue. But what is the alternative? An old idea is to train kids in a trade in high school via shop class. However, high school trade programs have had a deservedly bad reputation as a “dumping ground” for low-income students, providing a subpar education and failing to prepare young adults for the modern world. These classes are also bound up with a shameful racial history. When schools were forced to…
For many people, college is one of life’s most transformative, meaningful, and memorable periods. It’s an important time to expand your worldview, strengthen your confidence and sense of purpose, and develop your professional skill set. It can also be a great time to add valuable, real-world job experience to your resume. Though many of your days and nights in college will be crammed with studying and socializing, many college students today manage to find slivers…
College Board is preparing several new AP classes, including Pre-Calculus for the 2023-24 academic year, and African-American Studies for the following year. The Pre-Calculus AP class is designed to replace standard pre-calc classes in schools, rather than serving as an additional, Honors-like program. Other new AP classes in development include Anatomy & Physiology and Business Principles (an AP course focused on economics and entrepreneurship). The development of digital options for AP classes is also picking…
With the announcement of the new digital SAT, College Board has left some key details out, especially regarding how the exam will be scored. The typical message has been somewhat dismissive, assuring us that the scoring is handled by their finely tuned algorithm and that it’s complicated. Through analysis of the new SAT’s scoring, it was found that each test question is weighted, with some questions having a greater impact on scores than others do.…
While different schools put different stock in extracurriculars, almost every college considers them when deciding which students to admit. For example, the University of South Florida ranks extracurricular activities just behind grades, difficulty of coursework, and standardized test scores in terms of importance. The right high school activities can make a big difference during the admissions process. According to a study by California State University, Sacramento, extracurricular activities are positively correlated with attendance, GPA, test…
