Teacher Performance Rankings: The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves

Posted on April 5, 2012 by C2 Education

Imagine if your state chose to rank surgeons practicing at public teaching hospitals, and then published these rankings in the local paper. Doctors whose patients die or fail to recover quickly would receive poor rankings, while doctors whose patients fully and quickly recover would receive high rankings. In theory, this might sound like a great idea – after all, if you need an operation, you would obviously want a surgeon with a good track record. But such a system would fail to take into consideration the riskiness of various procedures and the prior health problems of patients. As a result, surgeons would become unwilling to perform risky but necessary procedures or would refuse to operate on patients with health risks. In the end, public teaching hospitals would fail to help the people who need it most because surgeons would become risk averse. Continue reading →

Grading Parents: Would You Get an A?

Posted on April 2, 2012 by C2 Education

A little over a year ago, the Florida legislature floated an idea which would have required elementary school teachers to grade parents based on their involvement in their children’s education. Now, a Louisiana legislator is floating a similar bill.

The idea of grading parents must, in some ways, be a balm to the besieged spirits of many of America’s hardworking school teachers. After all, teachers in nearly every state face new assessment systems which would essentially grade them based on their students’ performance on standardized tests. It must be nice for them to know that there are those out there who recognize that teachers cannot determine a student’s success on their own – parents play a big role, too. Continue reading →

Homeschooling: The New Education Reform?

Posted on March 7, 2012 by C2 Education

Homeschooled children cheering at a rally for Santorum.

Super Tuesday has brought Rick Santorum to the forefront of American media. In recent weeks, media scrutiny has brought many of Rick Santorum’s viewpoints on social issues into the spotlight, including his views on education in America.

Throughout his campaign, Santorum has flashed his homeschooling credentials as proof of his conservative education views. Although he voted in favor of No Child Left Behind – one of the most intrusive federal education laws in history – Santorum has repeatedly called for limiting government role in education:

Yes, the government can help, but the idea that the federal government should be running schools, frankly much less that the state government should be running schools, is anachronistic. It goes back to the time of industrialization of America when people came off the farms – where they did homeschool or have the little neighborhood school – and into these big factories called public schools. Continue reading →

Is Failure the Secret to College Admissions?

Posted on February 7, 2012 by C2 Education

In a recent post in Education Week, a dean of admission for Pitzer College ruminates on the benefits of failure in the college admissions race. The author correctly notes that there is no such thing as a “perfect” student, drawing the conclusion that applicants shouldn’t strive for perfection when seeking college admissions. In fact, the author says that he and his peers are often skeptical of students who present themselves as flawless. Instead of encouraging students to present perfection in their applications, he suggests that students should embrace their flaws: Continue reading →

State of the Union: Reducing College Costs

Posted on January 30, 2012 by C2 Education

: Can Obama lower the cost of college?

In his State of the Union speech last Tuesday, President Obama spent a great deal of time discussing education in America. Recognizing the importance of an affordable higher education, Obama highlighted his administration’s goal of reducing college costs in order to make college more accessible.

Anyone who doubts the need for such changes surely has not dealt with college financial aid recently. It is a widely accepted fact that a college education is necessary for higher earnings; in an age in which employability is determined by education, students from every walk of life must be able to access higher education. Unfortunately, the costs of tuition at the nation’s colleges and universities has increased four times faster than the rate of inflation, pricing out many middle- and lower-class families. As a result, student loan debt now outpaces credit card debt, leaving young adults to face years of indentured servitude in order to pay off their education debts.

College costs and rising student loan debt have become a rallying point in the Occupy movements, something that the Obama administration is very aware of. Many believe that this newfound attention to college costs is simply a political move to bring young voters back into the Obama fold. But regardless of Obama’s possible motivations, his proposals have great merit and ought to be seriously considered by legislators from both sides of the aisle. Continue reading →

Do Standardized Tests Kill Reading Skills?

Posted on January 25, 2012 by C2 Education

As the number of students that take standardized tests rises, the number of parents criticizing these tests is also rising…

Nearly every standardized test includes a reading component. On the typical test, students are asked to read a small selection or excerpt and then answer a short series of multiple choice questions about the material. On the surface, this methodology makes sense: By having students read a selection and answer questions about it, we can determine their reading comprehension abilities in order to measure improvement.

But what if this method is killing the art of reading?

In a recent New York Times article, two parents argue that our standardized testing methods are disastrous to students. Their anger with standardized testing came on New Year’s Eve when they and some friends of theirs decided to take the practice English test that their son had been assigned for homework. Since 3 of the 4 parents were PhDs, they were pretty confident that they’d be able to pass the test with flying colors. Instead, they never made it past the first question: Continue reading →

Cross-Curricular Missteps

Posted on January 24, 2012 by C2 Education

: This homework worksheet was assigned to 3rd graders in Georgia.

Imagine this: Your third grade child heads back to school after winter break and comes home with a math worksheet. You, being the awesome parent that you are, help your child with his homework. You are shocked to read the following questions:

If Frederick got two beatings per day, how many beatings did he get in one week?

Frederick had 6 baskets filled with cotton. If each basket held 5 pounds, how many pounds did he have altogether?

Each tree had 56 oranges. If 8 slaves picked them equally, how many oranges did each slave pick?

This exact scenario has recently played out in a metro Atlanta elementary school. In the wake of the incident, the school system launched a full-scale investigation and activist groups took to the airwaves. The Georgia NAACP demanded that all staff involved in the incident be fired, that the teachers offer an apology to all parents, and that the affected students receive counseling to cope with the aftermath of the offending assignment. The Professional Association of Georgia Educators (PAGE), on the other hand, has said that the staff involved should not be fired but retrained and that this unfortunate incident ought to be a teachable moment. Continue reading →

Didn’t Get Into Your Dream School? Fear Not, C2 Is Here!

Posted on January 4, 2012 by C2 Education

: Get into your dream school today!

This year a record number of students applied to college through early decision or early action plans, and these students are now receiving the results of their applications. Sadly, because of the record number of early applicants, there have also been a record number of deferrals or even outright rejections. If your child is among the thousands of other students worried about being rejected from their dream school, read on!

Students who have been deferred in early admission can still take steps to improve their chances of admission:

Write a letter to the admissions office expressing continued interest in attending the school. Include any recent developments, such as awards, recognitions, or accomplishments.
Send updated transcripts with first quarter/trimester/semester grades ASAP.
If you test well, pay the late fees and register immediately for January SAT II subject tests. Strong test results could help push your application over the edge.
If possible, determine who oversees your region and write that person a letter expressing your deep desire to attend the school.
If possible, send in an additional recommendation letter from an impressive source – a professor you did research with, a Congressman you interned for, etc.
DO NOT overwhelm the admissions office with additional materials or communications. It is advisable to augment your application, but if you go too far you risk annoying your admissions officers – NOT a good way to earn admission.
Be sure that ALL communications come directly from the student, NOT the parent! Continue reading →

Neither Rain, nor Sleet, nor Snow…Standardized Tests Still Go On

Posted on August 30, 2011 by c2educate

Natural disasters and NCAA scandals cannot deter the fact that your child will still need to take the SAT's and ACT's.

We’ve gone from a media storm surrounding the University of Miami Hurricanes to extensive coverage of Hurricane Irene. Though many of you may still be coping with floods and wind damage, time marches on and your child’s registration deadlines and test dates grow ever nearer.

When we speak of test dates, most students and parents immediately think of the SAT and the ACT (see our SAT and ACT mythbusters here)– but both of these tests are part of testing systems developed by the College Board and ACT, Inc. College Board has created a line of exams that includes ReadiStep, the PSAT, and the SAT, while ACT, Inc.’s line includes Explore, PLAN, and the ACT. Test dates for all of these exams generally fall in October, so the time to prepare is now. Read on to learn more about these two lines of testing. Continue reading →

Mythbusters: ACT and SAT

Posted on August 24, 2011 by c2educate

We are "busting" all the myths of the SAT and ACT. Please give us your response below!

College admissions testing is a rite of passage for millions of high school students each year, yet many parents and students remain confused about these important exams. Much of this misinformation has become part of college admissions lore – we’re here to set the record straight. Continue reading →

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