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DEL.ICIO.USSAT Prep Frenzy
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The rollout of the New SAT, along with buzz about how competitive it has gotten to get into a good college, has sent the frenzy over test preparation into overdrive. I’ve never gotten so many news releases about new ways to study. Have SAT vocab words come across your cell phone or PDA, read a novel infused with SAT vocab words, build your own SAT quizzes. Now the folks at test -prep giant Kaplan bring you a 12-song CD featuring songs laden with SAT words.
Sample lyrics: “At this proximity you are deleterious to my tranquility”… “I am resplendent in the day/Scoff at all that is in my way” … “Why didn’t you tell me about your flagrant style/How can I make you mine for a while … “
The project is a joint effort with a company called Defined Mind, “a unique educational publisher that fuses hip-hop, alternative and other genres of music with advanced vocabulary to teach reading comprehension to students in grades 8 to 12, and to people studying for undergraduate or graduate entrance exams and ESL,” according to Kaplan. The CD, which comes with a study guide, is $25.
Is the test prep industry out of control or simply marketing its product in innovative ways?
Comments
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By Ernest
January 27, 2005 04:00 PM | Link to this
If they can also find a way to integrate SAT words with a game for Playstation/GameCube and other gaming equipment, they are on to something. This is more a sign of the times. Many kids are being ‘overstimulized’ with electronic gadgetry these days.
Maybe we could come up with a good Algebra/Geometry game ala Reader Rabbit and market it for SAT prep.
By Don
January 28, 2005 11:19 AM | Link to this
It is no secret that the SAT is not the culmination of what a high school student should or has learned but the ability of the individual to master the SAT testing methodology. Companies offering prep courses to increase scores significantly are cashing in on parent fears that their children will be left behind. This fear is well founded as long as institutions give overweighted credibility to SAT scores in trying to assess students future academic performance. While all schools should have the ability to out perform any of these prep programs by just adhering to state curriculums the truth is few do. This is the same mindset that drive the ideas for vouchers and charter schools.
By Gloria Moulder
January 28, 2005 11:45 AM | Link to this
Do you know why teachers and education are taking a back seat to pay for the state to keep prisoners years past their parole eligibiliry date?
Due to the parole boards retroactive extended sentences to serve policy there are 18000+ inmates who have served their sentences to be eligible for parole, that have been denied release on parole.
It is costing the state in excess of 300 million dollars to house these inmates who are eligible for parole, which has a huge effect on the budget for teachers pay, education, and programs for the poor.
Are Georgia educators willing to take a back seat, to pay for prisoners who are, and have been, held for years past the time they became eligible for parole?
I realize teachers, are probably not interested in the fate of prisoners, but I think they have the right to know that the 300 million dollars being spent by the state to keep inmates incarcerated beyond their parole eligibility has to have an impact on the state economy.
By Glenda
January 28, 2005 12:43 PM | Link to this
Most Annoying Eduspeak Word —-Well, actually it’s a phrase. Adequate Yearly Progress……Adequate is a relative term and so much of it is completely out of the school systems’ and especially teachers’ control. Who controls attendance? Who controls preparation for learning? Who controls the home environment? Who controls, to some extent, students’ attitudes toward learning? The Parents So let’s make it AYPP (Adequate Yearly Progress for Parents)!