SAT PREP BOOKS

1. The Official SAT Study Guide – Version 2 book with 10 Tests (this is current version)

• Publisher: College Board; 2 Stg edition (July 21, 2009)
• Paperback: 997 pages
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0874478529
• ISBN-13: 978-0874478525
• Link: The Official SAT Study Guide 2nd Edition on Amazon.com

2. The Official SAT Study Guide – Version 1 Book with 8 Tests

• Publisher: College Board; 4th edition (October 7, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0874477182
• ISBN-13: 978-0874477184
• Link: The Official SAT Study Guide Version 1 on Amazon.com

To see the difference between the above two SAT prep books read our article comparing the SAT version 1 and SAT version 2 books.

ACT PREP BOOKS

3. The Real ACT Prep Guide – with 3 Real ACT Tests

• Publisher: Peterson’s; 2 edition (December 3, 2007)
• Paperback: 623 pages
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0768926750
• ISBN-13: 978-0768926750
• Link: The Real ACT Prep Guide on Amazon.com

There are definitely books by other publishers out there. As a student or a tutor what book do you prefer for practicing or tutoring the SAT and ACT? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

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VocabVideos is a collection of 500 high frequency SAT vocabulary words that can be accessed for a monthly subscription of $9.99 or an annual subscription of $49.99. The services includes downloadable vocabulary word lists with definitions, practice quizzes, and suggested study guides for preparing for the ISEE, ACT, GRE and high school English tests.

They use parodies of popular tv series like Lost, The Office, 24, and Gossip Girl to make the learning fun and videos engaging. Check out this example video below:

So here’s my take on the VocabVideos Service:

1. Video is effective: There are numerous studies that will confirm that auditory and visual cues in content make learning much more effective. It should also come as no surprise that a great way to target Millennials and a Gen-Y audience is via video. There is a reason they are known as the YouTube generation.

2. Parody is questionable: Overall we are huge fans of making learning fun and interactive and agree with the use of humor in teaching. Also the use of parody could help make these videos viral (see next point on this subject). However at the same time it can also be a distraction. Focused students would like to take care of business and move on. The gimmick is good for drawing people in but perhaps not the best for learning.

3. Spread is stunted: VocabVideos has done a terrific job creating valuable video content. However they are greatly inhibiting the spread of their content and business by gating these videos. It seems they are hoping to generate an additional revenue stream by having students subscribe to the vocabulary content as a service.

As an alternative I would put out all 500 videos on YouTube for free and use that as a lead generation tool and brand builder for my core tutoring business. Just imagine how some of the fun videos could spread through Facebook and Twitter. They could generate 500x traffic to their site by using these videos effectively.

All in all, this is a step in the right direction. At any moment they can open up their videos for everyone to watch and I’m hoping all tutoring businesses including our customers will follow suit and start creating some fun, engaging video content to draw more students into their business.

What do you think??

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As schools prepare to open for the 2010-2011 school year, discussions inevitably turn to the new technologies available to educators. Teachers preparing for opening day, often learn of new equipment and software available for implementation. Too many times, technological products which hold the potential to revolutionize areas of teaching and learning prove to be helpful but do not overthrow old methods of teaching and learning.

The promise of dynamic change that comes with these products yields to the reality of smaller changes in what and how students learn. Without the skill or inspiration, some educators use the technology for convenience rather than innovation. The technology helps, student engagement increases, but not nearly enough as possible. Critics, sometimes correctly, argue that the purchases are not worth their cost. The results provide fodder for public discussion and debate.

Here are 4 things educators should consider when making technology decisions:

1. Ask new questions: The power of the new technology must be paired with new, more advanced thinking. In order to truly tap the power of the technology school systems need to change some of the questions they ask. Instead of trying to make what they do better, easier or faster, school systems must attempt to change what they do. Education systems must ask: How can the technology change what we try to accomplish? In short, those who wish to use technology to reform schools must begin to “ask different”.

2. Identify changes sought: While teachers must accept some of the responsibility for the lack of monumental shifts, the challenge to utilize technology in education must be met more systematically. School leadership can not purchase technology, install it in their school, provide a vendor sponsored two hour training after school one day and expect meaningful change. The effort to change must start with identifying the changes sought. Technology that critics claim is not worth the taxpayer dollars, because the results are not evident, can be worth the money and more.

3. Define specific academic goals and desired outcomes: School leadership must specifically define the academic goals and outcomes they want achieved. For instance, instead of stating that they want educators to use data to improve student performance, a school leader can require that teachers identify, with data, the growth students make over time on specific objectives, such as reading for understanding or accurately applying mathematical formulas. With these types of goals as requirements, a testing and data organizing system can be invaluable to the classroom teacher who accurately and comprehensively measures student progress. A projection system once used for lecture notes becomes a means for demonstrations and interactivity. Online reviews and tutorials can be developed to provide re-teaching and reinforcement.

4. Articulate a technology vision: In recent years, many school systems have created positions for Technology Directors (or one with a similar title) to expedite the infusion of technology in the classroom. But often what is missing (and as important), is a clearly articulated vision. These priorities must be comprehensively communicated. When done appropriately, the technology available to help realize the goals will prove more than worth the cost. Vendors who now demonstrate the impressive functions of new technology will instead attempt to communicate how their products contribute to meeting a system’s mission.

In many industries, new technology overthrows old paradigms. New products cause disruption or elimination in entire businesses; just look for a record store at any mall. In education, such comprehensive disruption does not take place. Does the reasoning for this exist in the technology available or in the school systems themselves?

School personnel need to stop asking, “What does the new technology do?” and start asking, “How can the technology help us educate differently?” With high quality technological tools, the answer to the latter is endless.

What do you think? What in your mind is the purpose of technology in education and how best should it be integrated into the classroom and system.

Photo credit: David Reece

The SAT is still the most common admissions exam. However, the ACT has nearly caught up in popularity. Most colleges accept either the SAT or ACT, and a growing number of colleges no longer requires either one. The SAT results are due out on September 13th.

The ACT is growing as it is now a requirement for all high school seniors in more states. Colorado, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Wyoming all require the ACT as part of their graduation requirements for high school students. Arkansas, Texas and Utah will soon make state-financed ACTs available to all districts as well.

Cynthia Schmeiser, president and chief operating officer of ACT’s education division commented that the ACT test population, “now includes virtually all students in eight states, many of whom might not have considered taking a college and career readiness assessment years ago.” At least 60% of all 2010 high school graduates in 25 states took the ACT and in another 10 states at least 80% of high school graduates took the ACT.

What are your students planning to take, the SAT or ACT?

Graph Source: 2010 ACT Condition of College and Career Readiness Report

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1. Nicholas Negroponte: The Physical Book Is Dead In 5 Years

Spotlight: Digital Content
Author: MG Siegler at TechCrunch

Last week at the Techonomy conference Nicholas Negroponte, best known as the founder of the One Laptop per Child Foundation, said that the physical book will be dead in 5 years. He compared today’s hard copy publishing industry to the music and film industries of the 1970s and early 1980s how the rise of digital formats have completely replaced physical music and video such as tape and film.

Takeaway: There wave of digital change is going to hit books and we all have to embrace it.

2. A New Directory of Education Blogs

Spotlight: Digital Content
Author: Richard Byrne of Free Technology for Teachers

Edublogs, a blogging platform for over 500K educators and educational organization just announced a new directory of blogs. The directory is divided into mulitple categories covering K-12 subjects, library blogs, and professional blogs. The key news to note is that the directory is not limited to blogs hosted by Edublogs. So you can submit your education blog to be added to the directory.

Takeaway: If you are in the education space, a. you should be blogging and b. if you are blogging then submit your blog to be part of the Edublogs directory.

3. 90% of Core Textbooks Available for Free via CourseMart on the iPad

Spotlight: Digital Content
Author: Nicholas Deleon at CrunchGear

CourseMart, a company that sells e-textbooks for the laptop and iPhone just launched a free, iPad app that it says has 90% of the core textbooks available. Students can take notes or annotate each text using by sticky notes. The iPad is continuing to make strides in digital content consumption and other gadgets such as the Nook from Barnes & Noble are also competing fiercely in this market.

Takeaway: The good news for consumers is that text Books are going digital and should be available cheaply.

Photo credit: mfophotos

Spotlight: Education Technology
Author: Audrey Waters of ReadWrite Web

Last week Microsoft announced that the University of Georgia selected it’s Live@edu cloud computing service. The 85,000 students and faculty at the University of Georgia join an existing 11 million students to benefit from additional email storage, integrated calendaring and additional online collaboration tools. In addition to saving money, schools are under pressure to choosing systems that are secure enough to handle private student data (including CIPA requirements at the K-12 level), support multiple devices for both student and faculty, and fulfill the demand to support collaborative work in an educational environment.

Takeaway: There is growing confidence in cloud computing solutions and more and more educational institutions are comfortable moving their private data and computing solutions into the cloud.

2. Thoughts on the Blackboard acquisition of Wimba and Elluminate

Author: Mitch Weisburgh of Academic Business Advisors
Spotlight: Education Management Industry

Technology in the Education space is evolving pretty rapidly and Blackboard is positioning itself as the platform leader used by educational organizations for managing educational course work and classroom management. This article compared Blackboard’s acquisitions of Wimba and Elluminate to Microsoft’s acquisition of PowerPoint in the 90′s to establish itself as the leader in Office applications. While we agree in theory with the analogy we believe it would be more appropriate to compare Blackboard to SAP or Oracle in that sense.

Takeaway: Through acquisitions and organic growth Blackboard is vying for a dominant position in managing the end-to-end value chain for educational organizations.

3. White House Names Race to the Top Finalists

Spotlight: Education Policy
Author: STEPHANIE BANCHERO of the Wall Street Journal

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced the finalists who will compete for a piece of $ 3.4 billion in funding to improve education standards. Around 10 to 15 states will be awarded up to $250 million to push innovation and reward states that promote charter schools (NGO public schools) and tie student performance to teachers. Previous awardees include the states of Delaware and Tennessee who shared $600 million in funding.

Takeaway: The high-stakes contest for millions of dollars is forcing states to experiment with education reform which includes adopting the common core standards for testing students.

4. Hawaii Schools Move to Online Testing

Spotlight: Standardized Testing
Author: Mary Vorsino, of the Honolulu Star Advertiser on EdWeek

Public schools in Hawaii will roll out online testing for reading and math for the first time this fall and students will be able to take the assessment up to three times. The highest score will be used to assess what they are learning in the classroom.

Takeaway: Education officials in Hawaii believe shifting from paper-and-pencil exams to online testing will improve scores.

5. Valedictorian Speaks Out Against Schooling in Graduation Speech

Spotlight: K-12 Education
Author: Kevin Prentiss of SwiftKick

Last but not least we would like to turn your attention to this riveting speech by Valedictorian Erica Goldson who graduated last month from Coxsackie-Athens High School. Thanks to Kevin Prentiss from Swift Kick for grabbing the entire text of the speech and posting it on his company’s blog.

Takeaway: I’ll let you be the judge of her speech. It is powerful and definitely worth a read.

Photo credit: Reini68

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Please note that these results are from over a year ago so the 2010 picture could be a little different. What was least surprising was the use of course management systems such as Blackboard and WebCT. There’s good penetration and awareness of such tools in colleges, especially with the rise of distance learning.

Also the lack of use of video conferencing did not surprise me as most colleges are still gearing up for a global audience. A couple of years down the road I won’t be surprised if that number has reduced by 25% or more.

What surprised me the most was how little professors were using blogs and wikis. Only 13% of college professors blogged a little and only 16% used collaborative tools such as wikis. Perhaps I’ve been living in my high-tech, marketing bubble too long but I honestly thought such free tools would be more ubiquitous in higher ed.

What do you think? How have you been using some of these educational technologies in teaching?

6 Internet Trends to Watch In Education
A detailed review of the latest internet trends such as social media, video, game based-learning impacting education and how educators, teachers and tutors can embrace those changes with the rise of the digital- native.

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Author: WBUR News & Wire Services
Spotlight: Common Core Standards

The Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education agreed to adopt the Common Core Standards for state standardized testing. In a 9-0 vote, Massachusetts became the 28th state in the U.S. to approve the new national standard and another 12 should follow suite by the Fall. In a couple of years the MCAS exam will be history.

Takeaway: A national standard for testing seems to be a great idea. At the same time states with superior records want to ensure they are not lowering the quality of their education standards.

2. School Chief Dismisses 241 Teachers in Washington

Spotlight: Policy
Author: Tamar Lewin of the New York Times

Michelle Rhee, the chancellor of Washington D.C. public schools fired 241 teachers (5 percent) of the district’s total last week. All but a few of those dismissed had received the lowest rating under a new system that that holds teachers accountable for their students’ standardized test scores. The Obama administration’s focus on teacher effectiveness has pushed states to develop evaluation and pay models that link teacher ratings to their students’ test scores.

Takeaway: While there are merits to holding teachers accountable for student’s performance, a sole emphasis on test scores is a very shallow evaluation of teacher’s contribution to a students learning and success.

3. SAT or ACT: Which Test Should You Take?

Spotlight: Test Prep
Author: Lynn O’Shaughnessy of TheCollegeSolutionBlog

The SAT and ACT require different kinds of skills and students can significantly increase their scores just by picking the right standardized test. Here is a helpful, how-to article for students who want to understand which test is better form them and how to go about evaluating which one suits them better.

Takeaway: Students should be able to map test formats to their strengths and weaknesses so they know where they can derive a better opportunity through higher scores.

4. Once a Leader, U.S. Lags in College Degrees

Spotlight: US Higher Ed
Author: Tamar Lewin of the New York Times

The CollegeBoard published a report last week that the United States used to lead the world in the number of 25- to 34-year-olds with college degrees now ranks 12th among 36 developed nations. College completion is a major concern and the growing gap between the United States and other countries threatens to undermine American economic competitiveness.

Takeaway: Decreasing the gap between the United States and other countries should be a strong emphasis while ensuring qualified, educated people in the workforce are able compete in the global economy.

5. India unveils prototype for $35 computer

Spotlight: Education Technology
Author: BBC News

Last week the Indian government unveiled a prototype of an iPad-like touch-screen laptop costing $35. Aimed at students, the tablet runs of Linux and supports web browsing, video conferencing and word processing. This device is India’s answer to MIT’s $100 laptop per child and will eventually cost $10.

Takeaway: Everyone agrees that it is critical to get cheap, internet based mobile devices into the hands of children in developing nations to improve education.

Photo credit: Aaron Schmidt

Free e-Book: 5 Tips to Improve Your Reporting for Standardized Test Reporting
Download this eBook from Socrato to learn how to optimize and improve your reports to help students improve their scores on standardize tests such as the SAT, ACT, LSAT or others.

Download the eBook >>

So I decided to make this word cloud of all the major education news sites and blogs highlighted on Guy Kawasaki’s AllTop Education page. By no means is this comprehensive but I felt the sampling was representative of education in general as it included a whole bunch of blogs and most of the major education news sources.

Once I created the word cloud using Wordle, I decided to trim some of the common education keywords such as education, schools, students, teachers, teaching, university, etc. to get an idea of the real themes being discussed. This second word cloud below is representative of that.

The results are pretty much what you might expect but being able to see it visually is really helpful. I kept the maximum number of words to 500 as it helped some of the major clusters stand out. This is my first pass at this. At some point I want to be able to drill down by specific categories like Ed-tech, K12 or K20, etc. so we can have more specific insights as to what people are talking about.

Let me know what you think in the comments!

6 Internet Trends to Watch In Education
A detailed review of the latest internet trends such as social media, video, game based-learning impacting education and how educators, teachers and tutors can embrace those changes with the rise of the digital- native.

Download the eGuide >>

So how exactly do the MCAS and all the other state exams stack up against the Common Core? There’s been a lot of debate here in Boston area and I found this great resource published by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute where they compared the state standards in all 50 states and the District of Columbia to the Common Core. Let the data put the debate to rest.

In Math, 39 states clearly had a standard that was inferior to the Common Core, and twelve states had equivalent standards with MA being one of those twelve.

In English, only three states had standards that were clearly superior. Those were California, D.C. and Indiana. Eleven states (MA among them) clearly had an equivalent standard while the rest of the states had standards that were clearly inferior to the Common Core.

So on the whole it seems that most states that move to the Common Core will be moving up from inferior standards. When it comes to MA, it seems for most part the Common Core will be in the same league as the MCAS exam. At the end of the does this help students learn any better? Not sure that’s the case.

What do you think? Do you think a move to a common standard is a beneficial move to schools? How about for students?

Image Source: Thomas B. Fordham Institute

6 Internet Trends to Watch In Education
A detailed review of the latest internet trends such as social media, video, game based-learning impacting education and how educators, teachers and tutors can embrace those changes with the rise of the digital- native.

Download the eGuide >>