lies scored significantly lower onthis year's state proficiency exams than their better-off peers, a reviewof stateDepartment of Education data show. In
most cases, the gapsbetween high-performing
low-incomestudents and all other students on theColorado Student Assessment Program exams were more than 30percentagepoints.
SAT Camp Offers Pay to Study for Exam - Some high
school students will be paid $5.25 an hour to attend an SAT
prep course at Coppin State University this summer, the latest
step in the school's attempt to reach out to the neighborhoods
around the West Baltimore campus. Fifty students will get
breakfast, lunch, bus passes and three hours a day of SAT
coaching for two weeks this month. The students, most from
nearby high schools, will be paid at the end of the course.
With SAT Changing, Questions Multiply -
The new SAT college entrance exam will be
administered for the first time in March 2005. But with less
than a year until launch, many questions about how colleges
will handle the conversion remain unanswered. The uncertainty
is raising stress levels for some parents and college-bound
students, but it also could provide unique opportunities for
students to maximize test scores.
Students in Alaska Sue Over Exam - Disabled children and their parents
filed a federal class-action lawsuit yesterday against the Alaska Board of
Education, the latest in a string of challenges to laws of various states
requiring students to pass an exit exam to earn a high school diploma.
Read the article "A
Hurdle Too High" - Iam not your average kid with a learning
disability. I am a unique kid with a different style of learning. I
did not choose to have this learning disability. It chose me. Because
I am stuck with this, I am not going to let this problem get in the
way of my success.
Ends Flagging Tests of Disabled - The maker
of the ACT college entrance test followed the lead of its rival
Friday, and announced that the scores of disabled students who need
extra time to take the ACT exam will no longer be specially marked.
NY Students Ousted for
Stats? - Thousands of struggling students were discharged by high
school administrators more concerned about their own job evaluations
than the students' futures, say some public officials and children's
New List of Over 700 Colleges
that Deemphasize the SAT and ACT in Admissions: A list of more than
700 accredited, bachelor degree-granting institutions which do not use
the SAT I or ACT to make admissions decisions about substantial
numbers of freshman applicants is posted on the web at
http://www.fairtest.org/optinit.htm in both state-by-state and
alphabetical order. Printed copies may be obtained by sending a
stamped, self-addressed, business-size envelope to FairTest, 342
Broadway, Cambridge, MA 02139. For further information contact Bob
Schaeffer (239) 395-6773 or
The Special Ed
Dilemma - Advocates say holding
special ed kids to the same standards as everybody else is a step
forward, but critics say it makes no sense. It produces dumbfounded
stares and sighs of frustration. Yes, special education students now
have to take regular tests. And the kicker? They are expected to do
just as well as students without the same problems.
Schools" on the Rise - For children of Asian descent growing up
in and around New York City, cram schools are a part of life. Starting
in the third grade and continuing through high school, hundreds of
students drag themselves to these private tutoring classes, long a
tradition in the Far East, day after day, after school, on weekends
and over the summer. Now, growing numbers of non-Asian parents are
enrolling their children in the schools. [Source: PEN]
Putting Students to a Big Test - New Prince George's County
schools chief André J. Hornsby will require students in the eighth and
ninth grades to take the PSAT, a national test designed for
eleventh-graders preparing for the SAT college-entrance exam. [Source]
- Shae Kunz cringes with guilt and frustration every time she
thinks about her 11-year-old son's struggles with literacy and the
misdiagnoses that lef