Should test prep programs try to teach academic content?

When I read statements like the following, I become distraught about trying to teach students to score better on a test by putting in the hours to learn the content and practice the skills being tested.

According to the $2 billion test-prep industry, performance on the SAT and ACT can be improved with tips and tricks. "We don't pretend to teach students a lot academically," says Ed Carroll, an executive director at The Princeton Review. "Taking tests is a skill that can be developed, like playing a guitar or tennis."

Source: 10 Things College Admissions Tests Don't Do

Test day tip for heterosexual males: avoid beautiful women

Psychologusts at Radboud University in The Netherlands carried out a study on how men perform after being the presence of an attractive woman. The results are published in the Journal of Experimental and Social Psychology. The research shows men who spend a couple of minutes with an attractive woman perform poorly in tests designed to measure brain function.

For more, read the Telegraph's article here.

Stanley H. Kaplan

On August 23, 2009, Stanley H. Kaplan left behind a changed world.

As the founder of the nation's first test preparation company, he built a new global marketplace in standardized test preparation. He started his company from his parents' Brooklyn home in 1938, and it became a chain of more than 100 centers nationally. After selling his business to the Washington Post in 1984, the education business grew to a global giant in the paid-education market. He remained working there until 1994.

He challenged the College Board's position that tutoring won't help prepare students standardized tests. “To say you can’t improve scores is to say you can’t improve students, and I disagree with that,” he told The New York Times in 1979. He convinced the Federal Trade Commission that students could be helped through test prep, and by doing so launched a multi-billion dollar test prep industry.

Mr. Kaplan was rejected from medical school, and yet later tutored thousands of students on the MCAT. In Manhattan the Rita and Stanley H. Kaplan Cancer Center at the New York University Medical Center is a reminder of his impact of this world.

He loved his work. Kaplan spent long nights devising practice SAT questions and finding entertaining ways to teach the Pythagorean theorem.

Mr. Kaplan believed that students should have access to higher education based on their capabilities, not financial backgrounds or connections. Ironically, many students in a recent survey conducted by Logical Steps at Arizona State University found that students perceived Kaplan's courses to be very expensive, but safe. Newsweek wrote the following.

Today SAT prep courses are often viewed as a pricey tool that gives an advantage to upper-middle-class kids in the admissions arms race, but for decades Kaplan's clientele was striving ethnic New Yorkers who hoped higher scores might put them on par with WASPy prep-schoolers and Ivy League legacies. "He challenged society with the notion of meritocracy," said Andy Rosen, Kaplan's current CEO, in his eulogy.

I'm not sure if his company is continuing his belief or just cashing out, but Mr. & Mrs. Kaplan became big philanthropists, and I raise my glass to his legacy.

Standardized exams under attack in UK

According to the Guardian, Peter Hyman, who was in Tony Blair's inner circle for almost a decade as a speechwriter and strategist before he left to become a teacher, says that the exam system don't teach children to think. The article quotes what Hyman wrote in the Observer, "There is almost an unspoken deal: we'll spoon-feed you the required information to pass your exams, if you play by the rules and do your homework on time."

This is the recurring criticism of systems that use standardized exams, that students can simply be taught to what is needed to pass the exam, and nothing else. I'll be very interested to see if the UK works out a better system...

Experts weigh in on the value of standardized tests

There's a fascinating discussion on standardized tests here.

Movie about Student Loans

Here's a trailer for a upcoming documentary on student loans. The movie is called "Student Loans Default". It does make me wonder if we'll see a movement in education like we're currently seeing in healthcare.

Closing the standardized test results gap by changing the test

Is it just me or does this smell of the usual political manipulation of test results?

According to boston.com, Democratic National Committee chairman Tim Kaine today spoke about his work as the Governor of Virginia.

And, I am so proud of the work we are doing in Virginia to boost achievement in schools:

More than 87,000 ESOL students in the Commonwealth far outpace English language learners in other states around the country. Right now the National Assessment of Educational Progress – known as “the nation’s report card” – ranks Virginia number one in the nation for fourth-grade reading proficiency by English language learners.

Virginia’s ESOL program has also made significant strides to improve learning outcomes for English language learners – the Commonwealth now leads the nation in achievement. We took a stand against standardized tests designed for native English speakers, and created alternative tests for English language learners instead. Virginia closed the achievement gap between English language learners and other students from 21 points to 9 points, and improved the pass rate on Standards of Learning tests by non-native speakers by more than 20 percent (from 55 percent to 78 percent) since 2003. Virginia’s English language learners have also improved achievement overall on high school exit exams and national standardized tests.

Chewing Gum Can Improve Test Scores

According to Chris Chatham at ScienceBlogs, "there's ample evidence that chewing gum enhances cognition", although scientists aren't exactly sure why this is the case.

Whatever the case, I say bring some gum to your study sessions and exams!

Fitness level affects academic performance

According to the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, your fitness level is related to your academic performance. The following are findings from a study of grades K-8 in the 2007–08 school year:

- Standardized test score performance increases consistently with increasing fitness across all weight groups.

- Overall, students in the top 5% in fitness score 36 percentile points higher on standardized tests than students in the bottom 5% in fitness.

I guess that means that jocks aren't so dumb after all...

Only 20% of 16,000 sixth graders passed standardized exams in Math, Science and languages

In Gaza that is. Or at least that's what the Institute for Middle East Understanding says here.

Follow directions

The NYTimes.com's story, Just Following Orders: An Evil Essay tells the story of how on the SAT, Mr. Schrefer intentionally tried to submit the most evil essay possible crediting Nazis as the "brightest thinkers of our time". He did this while following the instructions which do not include anything about morality. He received scores from two graders, a 5 and a perfect 6, for his essay.

China's National Higher Education Entrance Examination

China's National Higher Education Entrance Examination (中华人民共和国普通高等学校招生全国统一考试) has been described as the "most pressure packed examination in the world". For Chinese students, who under the one child policy are their family's sole future earning potential, this is "a watershed that divides two dramatically different lives". If they score well, they can be accepted to higher education programs and go on to participate in the benefits of China's growth. If they they score poorly, there future is almost certainly to be working at the bottom of a very crowded peasant class. Here are some quick facts about the exam:
- Held annually over 3 days
- Prerequisite for almost all higher education institutions at the undergraduate level
- Usually taken in students' last year of secondary school
- Overall mark is generally a weighted sum of students' marks in different subjects
- Scored on a scale of 100-900 points
- Max score varies wildly from year to year
- Provinces allowed to customize their own examinations
- 3 mandatory subjects are Chinese, mathematics and a foreign language
- A mix of 3 sciences (physic, chemistry, biology) and 3 humanities (history, geography, political education) are taken depending on the programs being applied to
- In 2006, 8.8 million are estimated to have taken the exam
- In 2007, 7 students with overall highest score in their provinces entered Hong Kong's Universities rather than the two major Universities in China.

Using Social Media in University Admissions

A study by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth entitled "Social Media and College Admissions: The First Longitudinal Study" highlights why it's important for students to keep their online image in proper order.

According to the report "a significant proportion of schools continue to research students via search engines (23%) and social networks (17%)." The report concludes that "the traditional factors will still play dominant roles in admissions decisions however no longer can students place damaging material online without potential consequences".

This is significant not only because it shows that universities are really doing their due diligence on their students, but indirectly points to potential way to reach out to admission officers, especially for more high profile applications like scholarships - through the links that come up when googling your name!

Standardized exams

Is it just me or have you noticed that standardized exams are like a political football?

In Ohio, a teaching union doesn't feel any love lost if they're less standardized exams in this world. In Romania, teachers banned a standardized test on the Romania language citing issues over recent hiring and firing policy changes by the Education Department. Something similar is happening in Los Angeles too! Might this be because standardized tests can be used to measure teaching performance as well as student performance?

In Arkansas, they're using different scoring strategies between state and national standardized exams. Their national scores keeping struggling while state exam results are skyrocketing. Guess which set of scores local educators point to?

John Taylor Gatto and his latest book "Weapons of Mass Instruction" is leading the charge by education professionals who feel the mere existence of standardized exams leads to teachers teaching to those exams and neglecting other forms of education thus limited our students to becoming standardized drones. And when you read stories like this one in Florida, you can understand his point.

The poor and underrepresented minorities feel that the rich will always score better on such exams thus perpetuating a cycle of poverty.

In Georgia, some people need to do some explaining about allegations on cheating on their standardized tests.

Standardized tests are frequently misrepresented. They can powerful indicators but can be manipulated in the spirit of "lies, damed lies and statistics". Look no further than the recent debate over Sotomayor and the exams used with firemen. On both sides of the issue people are passionate about what the results of the exams really mean and if the exam was even a valid measure.

Yet a serious alternative to standardized test hasn't emerged in the public debate. Whatever the case, standardized exams aren't going away. They're destined to exist as long as there's a need to judge the masses.

A great quote by Randall C. Deike, Vice president for enrollment at Case Western Reserve University who holds a Ph.D. in educational psychology.

"Too often standardized testing is condemned when it's really test misuse that's at issue."

Source: Take Tests Down a Notch, Report Says
Admissions group urges colleges to 'assume control' of debate on testing
Chronicle of Higher Education
By ERIC HOOVER

Insight into school principals and standardized tests

I came across this article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that sheds light into the competitive pressures on schools and their principals in performing well on standardized exams. Ever since No Child Left Behind was implemented, standardized exams have been a key metric in gauging school performances between 3rd and 11th grades. Some scores have risen drastically in a way that statistically points to cheating.

Insight into Reverse Discrimination through Standardized Tests in China

While reading about the ethnic tension that happened last week in Xinjiang China, I read an Associated Press article that stated the following.

A week before the Xinjiang riot, the hottest topic on the Internet — the most freewheeling public forum in China — was outrage over a top-scorer in the ultra-competitive college entrance exam.

The 17-year-old Han Chinese student's family falsely listed him as a minority, entitling him to 20 extra points and giving him a boost in landing places in top schools. The subterfuge, discovered by education officials, cut across notions of fairness in a society that for hundreds of years has seen standardized exams as a channel for merit-based advancement.

While riots and death are definitely horrible and newsworthy, the two paragraphs above caught my eye because, at Dr. Flowers Test Prep, we've reviewed research on how to address stereotype threat - the fear that one's behavior will confirm an existing stereotype of a group with which one identifies and which can affect performance - within standardized tests. In Malcolm Gladwell's book, Blink, The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, he describes how our unconscious views, may be quite different from our stated views and that these unconscious biases may have in educational performance. At Dr. Flowers Test Prep, we've identified a couple of test preparation techniques involving scaffolding/fading and priming as being strong ways of addressing stereotype threat and the self-fulfilling prophecies that can result from this phenomenon.

Where to find Happiness?

According to Happy Planet Index, Costa Rica tops the list of countries that are happy. Sadly the US is only 114th, but that's partly because the index weighs the ecological footprint of countries and the US is a massive polluter.

CNBC: Happiness Is ... Living Green in Costa Rica

CNN: Costa Rica tops list of 'happiest' nations

Google Wave Preview

An Introduction to Health Commons

This is a lovely video by John Wilbanks explaining the problem that Health Commons is attempting to solve through the connecting silos of knowledge using good design and good ol' trail and error.



Many of the points John so clearly describes are relevant to the work we're doing.

Part of his presentation discusses the need for trial and error in order to learn what works - a favorite topic at Logical Steps. Many of our projects over the years have required us to build things that we've never seen or heard of before. As humans our need for cognition leads us to seek to understand what we're building, how effective it will be and when it will be ready. Yet building something great comes from testing the boundaries and failing enough until you can formulate a strong enough hypothesis to build something that really works. This has caused us to reconsider what it means to deliver a product. We now view everything we work on in a state of evolution - a constant beta.

The video goes on to discuss connecting processes. As we've seen with Revenue Cycle University, connecting processes allow one to see the big picture and how an action in one step can affect something else that no one is yet aware of. Yet such insight comes at a cost as you need to identify, document and analyze processes before arriving at any conclusion. To get this part right requires interviews, observations, phone calls, emails, forum postings, organizing, reflection, fine-tuning, etc. We've worked out a way that allows us to teach others how to discuss their own processes and that was no small feat. So my hat's off to the folks at Health Commons for laying the groundwork for it to work the other way around.

NPR on the power industry

National Public Radio's program All Things Considered covered the power industry this week.

They detail that expertise is quickly leaving the power industry in the form of boomers retiring. We've heard this too while collaborating with Arizona State University in discussions with Arizona Power Supply. Separately I've also heard this point from major technology vendors in the utilities sector too.

This opens up great opportunities for younger people to backfill the positions. However, unless the skills are passed down quickly, the sector will likely face a skills shortfall. Complicating the matter is the introduction of newer technologies like green energy and intelligent power grids into the industry.

All of this foretells major efforts required to usher in the inevitable.

The Library of Kenya

I'm pretty psyched about the launch of the Library of Kenya. This is the brainchild of Ledama Olekina, a very busy guy. Besides running Maasai Education Discovery which has been bringing education to the rural communities in Kenya, running food drives and leading the charge to build Kenya's first national library system, he's running for president of Kenya.

With the help of the guys at OSSLabs, we setup a Koha library system and will iteratively customize it to support the needs of the Kenyan people. Exciting!

Revenue Cycle University

I've been extremely busy lately, Logical Steps has been rolling out Revenue Cycle University with "go live" dates this summer. This is part of Logical Steps' latest joint venture with the amazing folks at Zimmerman. In this venture, In this venture, we've rolled out 20+ courses to a major health system in New York and are in the process of rolling out 10 new courses to 6 clients. Each course must be customized for the client, for a total of 60 courses, not to mention demo courses!

As part of this initiative, we're also building a super cool learning system. I dare not say elearning system because that term has lost its meaning to me with all of the varieties, standards and actual ways that people learn online. That said, our system is leveraging the best from our work with new media platform R&D including social media, animations, closed-loop feedback, healthcare specific asset libraries and many more exciting features.

Considering that we have teams in US, Singapore and India working on this, we're managing 3 different holiday schedules. Each course has dozens of tasks and combined with the system development tasks, our current project plan has almost 1800 tasks. Whew!

TED Talks: be careful with plastic!

World ministers call for green economy

A meeting of environment ministers from around the world in Kenya has called for a 'global green new deal' that will see increased job creation and economic growth.

Click here for full story.

2008 Latest Edition - Did You Know 3.0 - From Meeting in Rome this Year

Worrisome video about our government

In this video of C-Span, Rep Paul Kanjorski (D-Penn, 11th District), the Capital Markets Subcommittee Chairman, explains the circumstances around the initial $700 billion bailout payment.

It is worrisome that he explains that he doesn't understand finance and he doesn't know what to do.

I don't think he would have admitted this except he was verbally attacked by an angry caller. It reminds me of what a wise man once told me: people always reveal more when they are desperate. In this case, Rep Kanjorski was desperate to defend himself. 

Funny cartoons describing game theory!

Sample comics from Raph Koster's book "A theory of fun". 

Kenya has Geothermic Energy!

Check out this movie for more. This could important for Narok, Kenya's vision of becoming Africa's first "green city".

Doctors make less mistakes using checklists

In a study published by the New England Journal of Medical, surgeons can reduce the rate of major complications from 11% to 7% by using basic checklists. Additionally, deaths dropped nearly in half with a rate of 1.5% going down to 0.8% using checklists.

I hypothesize that checklists can help in less critical circumstances too.

Over lunch I read The Death of Process, PERIOD! 

Author Max J. Pucher tries to tackle some tough topics about trying to follow processes at work and what really matters when considering improving business. He evokes agile thoughts vs traditional project management concepts. 

Learning Organizations

Here's a great passage from Wikipedia that captures the essence of what we're helping clients achieve through our organizational e-learning platform and methodology. 

Learning organizations are those that have in place systems, mechanisms and processes, that are used to continually enhance their capabilities and those who work with it or for it, to achieve sustainable objectives – for themselves and the communities in which they participate.

The important points to note about this definition are that learning organizations:
– Are adaptive to their external environment
– Continually enhance their capability to change/adapt
– Develop collective as well as individual learning
– Use the results of learning to achieve better results.

Speed diagramming class

Here are Susan, Andrea, Amanda and Ann during a speed diagramming exercise. 

Just read an article on Singapore's economy in the Walls Street Journal. 

Having worked in Asia through the economic downturn in 1998, I know it can be tough. Back in those days, I worked for LANSA under the direction of Gordon Davies and was charged with supporting our partner network in Asia. In such times, everyone had to cut back because spending dropped. I learned some lessons about partnering. 

First of all, in bad times, it's important to support partners all the more because they're faced with cut backs and their ability to service clients may drop. By stepping in to field questions and introduce ideas that are working elsewhere, it's possible to increase sales, quality of support and maintain education minimums. 

Secondly, when the sky is falling morale is low. Maintaining a positive attitude is contagious that can spread to partners. 

Also, traditional targets have to be taken with a grain of salt. Partners will already be trying to put on their best face to clients. There's little need to pressurize partners to meet numbers that are no longer tied to reality. Instead, meet with partners to formulate new targets based on what they see in their local market. This provides excellent market intelligence too. This can also help uncover if any partners are headed towards disaster. Let me tell you a story...

Before I arrived on the scene in Asia, one of LANSA's partners with 30 clients one day announced they were closing their doors. There had been no warning and no chance to prepare for us to minimize the damage to LANSA's local reputation and future support contracts. As result the market shunned LANSA. However, because LANSA was present during the 1998 economic downturn, we built a new reputation in this market and came out of the recession with doors opened again.