Abstract
On the Web
SAT Practice
https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sat/practice/daily-practice-app
Go to this website using your smartphone, follow the instructions, and you will be able to download the Daily Practice for the New SAT app. Every day you will be able to try a reading, writing, and language or math question. If you need a hint, you will be able to reveal one. If you make a mistake, an explanation will be available. Also, you can take a complete practice SAT test or PSAT 10 practice test and use an official answer sheet to answer the questions. Using the Daily Practice app, you can scan the answer sheet and get immediate feedback for your score. The app will save your results for personalized study and so you can track your progress.
The Quotations Page
This helpful website includes about 2,500 quotations from famous authors and speakers. You can search quotations by author or subject. You can also click to see a random quote or subscribe to an email list to receive a quote every day. If you need a boost, you can also subscribe to the motivational quotes of the day email list. If you have a web page and would like to feature a quote of the day or a motivational quote of the day, there are JavaScript tags that can be included in a web page’s HTML code.
The Kid Should See This
https://thekidshouldseethis.com/
The Kid Should See This site features a wide variety of 4,000+ short educational videos on topics such as science, technology, space, animals, nature, food, do-it-yourself projects, music, art, and animation. You can learn about mycelium packaging (a biodegradable alternative to Styrofoam), how ocean currents work, how bananas can make music, how to make kawaii egg animals, the history of cheese, peek inside marsupial pouches, and more! New videos are added each week.
What Is Bitcoin?
https://blockgeeks.com/guides/what-is-bitcoin/
How much do you know about cryptocurrencies? On this website you will find a comprehensive guide on Bitcoin, the oldest, most widely used, and widely accepted cryptocurrency. There are explanations on the history of Bitcoin, how Bitcoin works, what Bitcoin mining is, the advantages and disadvantages of owning and using Bitcoin, and how to protect Bitcoins. This site also includes a list of additional resources if you want to find a Bitcoin wallet, or spend Bitcoins at brick and mortar locations, or even see all transactions and newly mined blocks in real time.
Notable
The U.S. Department of Education (2019) reported the characteristics of those who participated in Advanced Placement courses from 2009 to 2013. About one third of students took courses for postsecondary credit in high school. A lower percentage of Hispanic students (30%) and Black students (27%) took courses than did White or Asian students (both 38%).
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation plans to invest around US$10,000,000 in professional development to train teachers on high-quality curricula by 2022 (Sawchuk, 2019) in content-specific professional development, services, products, and models that are effective (i.e., have a high rating from EdReports.org).
Based on the data from the High School Longitudinal Study (U. S. Department of Education, 2018), more than 70% of ninth-grade school students rate these factors as important in choosing a college to attend after high school: academic quality/reputation (74%), desired program of study (74%), and job placement (73%).
Success of Students Who Transfer From Community Colleges
Many students whose families face financial need often begin their postsecondary education at a community college. In fact, “nearly half of all postsecondary students today begin their college journey at a two-year institution (49.2%)” (Glynn, 2019, p. 1). To examine how many of these students actually persist and transfer to selective 4-year institutions, the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation commissioned a report to study transfer patterns of community college students (Glynn, 2019). The data were produced by the National Student Clearinghouse and included undergraduate students enrolled between 2010 and 2016. Community college was defined as a public, 2-year institution with highly selective colleges defined by the 2016 Barron’s Profiles of American Colleges. The researchers found that more than 35,000 community college students enroll at selective colleges and universities each year. However, selective institutions were more likely to enroll students coming from high school or other 4-year institutions than community college students. Those community college students who do transfer to selective institutions have equal to higher graduation rates as other transfer students or those who enroll directly from high school, graduating within 2½ years, on average. The researchers recommended these practices for increasing transfer students’ access and success in 4-year institutions (Glynn, 2019, p 21):
Pave the way for change by (a) including the transfer issues in the institution’s mission or strategic plan, (b) building a critical mass of supporters across campus, and (c) providing endowed scholarships for transfers.
Partner with 2-year colleges by (a) identifying prospective students early, (b) nurturing students’ self-beliefs, (c) ensuring students take the right classes, (d) having 2-year and 4-year faculty collaborate on pedagogy and curriculum development, and (e) having 4-year and community college presidents meet with each other.
Reach out early and often to prospective students by (a) appointing a campus point person for transfer students, (b) offering joint classes, (c) providing workshops for students, (d) facilitating campus visits, and (e) including “transfer centers” on websites.
Support students after transfer by (a) improving credit transfer policies, (b) offering specialized orientation programs, (c) offering institutional financial aid packages, (d) developing social integration strategies, (e) designating administrators to help students, (f) ensuring that advising considers students’ obligations, (g) ensuring all majors are open to transfer students, (h) having tenured faculty members advise students about projects, and (i) collecting and monitoring outcome data.
Motivation and Engagement in Student Assignments
Students are often disengaged from school learning and are ready to go home even before the last bell of the day. Educators are able to create more engagement by incorporating authentic choices and relevancy into their assignments (Dabrowski & Marshall, 2018). Authentic choices within an assignment may provide student options in content (i.e., selecting a subtopic within a content area or text), product (i.e., choosing the medium and how they will present what they have learned), and process (i.e., working alone or with peers). Relevancy is the value students perceive in a given assignment—its usefulness, its relationship to their interest, and its presentation by a person who they know and trust. In analyzing more than 6,800 middle school assignments, researchers at the Education Trust reported that few assignments met these two criteria. Dabrowski and Marshall (2018) suggest that teachers bring relevancy to assignments when they (a) teach complex concepts using themes across disciplines, cultures, and generations; (b) consider essential questions; (c) explore universal understandings; (d) use real-world materials and events to explore topics; and (e) connect with their students’ values, interests, and goals. They caution teachers to be thoughtful about the assignment’s content, how they build knowledge acquisition, and the use of pop culture or artificial techniques that rarely influence deeper learning.
Science and Math Education
Horizon Research, Inc., supported by the National Science Foundation, recently conducted a survey to examine science and math education with a particular emphasis on computer science (Banilower et al., 2018). Data were collected from a national sample of 1,273 schools. The researchers found that enrichment is much more prevalent in mathematics than in science, but programs that encourage student interest in mathematics are uncommon (e.g., few programs have students entering mathematics competitions). All schools tended to offer more enrichment opportunities in science and mathematics than in computer science, with larger schools offering more opportunities than smaller ones. In addition, opportunities for participation in subject-specific clubs and academic competitions were more prevalent in schools with a low percentage of students who were eligible for free/reduced price lunch. Standards also appeared to play a larger role in mathematics instruction than in science. Overall, the climate for mathematics instruction is generally seen as more supportive than for science. At the elementary level, resources and time for science were limited. Even less supported were programs to support students in computer science, with only 26% of high schools requiring any amount of computer science for graduation.