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College success, lawmakers on education, American Teacher, ethnic studies

Education Roundup

The Sonoma Valley Education Foundation is hosting a showing of the movie “American Teacher,” and the producers Dave Eggers and Nínive Calegari, along with the film’s star Jonathan Dearman, will be there for the screening at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 18, at Hanna Boys Center. The movie weaves together interviews with policy experts, facts and figures and insight into the lives of four specific teachers. To RSVP and reserve seats, call
935-9566.

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Speaking of teachers, I just read a surprising statistic that the United States recruits only 23 percent of its new teachers from the top third of college graduates, while top performing countries recruit 100 percent, according to McKinsey & Company research conducted last year.

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The second annual Bay Area Science Festival starts Friday, Oct. 25. Last year, 70,000 people attended, and more than 50 new events will take place across the Bay Area. If your student is interested in science, or if you are, there are some world-class offerings. See the full schedule online at bayareascience.org/schedule/

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Who succeeds in college and who is less likely to be able to handle the work? You may want to consider the source, but according to the College Board, SAT test scores are a strong predictor of college success. Of course, the College Board creates the test, but they say that only 43 percent of college-bound students who took the test last year have the skills necessary to succeed in college (or maintain a B- average or higher). Students who do not surpass the SAT benchmark score of 1550 (or approx. 500 or above on each section) have been shown to be more likely to struggle in college.

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Most parents are hoping for merit aid as well as financial aid from the colleges on their child’s list. Merit aid is not need-based, and it is given by colleges to lure students who might choose other institutions. It is renewable all four years and awards tend to range from $5,000 to $10,000. You can see which schools offer merit aid at www.meritaid.com and www.finaid.org. Grades and test scores are the important factors for a school deciding how much merit aid to offer a student.

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Sonoma Valley High’s college application workshop will be from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 13, in room J6. All four-year college-bound seniors and parents are welcome to come get help on CSU, UC, Common App or other private college applications. Students should bring their transcript, test scores and academic resume.

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The first of my fall workshops for seniors will be on “College Essay Tips for Seniors” at 11:35 a.m. today, Tuesday, Oct. 9, in the College & Career Center at Sonoma High. Also this week, Cornell College (Iowa), University of Oregon and Mount St. Mary’s will be visiting Sonoma Valley High.

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The Booster Club’s Home Winemakers party is at 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 14, at the Swiss Hotel. Tickets are $35 a person in advance ($40 at the door) and can be purchased at the Sonoma Community Center. This is one of the Booster Club’s main fundraisers and the proceeds go to support all the sports, clubs and electives at the high school.

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KidPower is offering a parent/child workshop on Saturday, Oct. 20, for ages 3-to-5 and 6-to-8 at the Lodge at Sonoma. Kidpower is a global nonprofit leader in bullying prevention, child abuse prevention, violence prevention, stranger awareness, and personal safety education for children, teens, and adults. I did a workshop with my daughter when she was young and found it very helpful. The cost is $50 for the parent child pair. Contact lisasanchez1030@gmail.com for more information or to reserve your spot.

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Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill last week making California the first state to financially protect student athletes who suffer career ending injuries. SB1525 requires that the four universities that receive more than $10 million annually in sports media revenue – the University of Southern California, UCLA, Berkeley and Stanford – give academic scholarships to students who lose their athletic scholarships if they are injured while playing their sport. The legislation starts with the 2013-14 school year.

Gov. Brown also has a bill on his desk that would require that all school districts break out and report data on their long-term English-learners. California is the first state to require this. The concern is that there are great numbers of unreported English-language-learner students who languish in public schools for years without ever reaching fluency. A recent study by California Together found that 59 percent of secondary school ELL students have been stuck at the same level of English proficiency for two or more years.

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Elsewhere in political news, Gov. Mitt Romney has taken a stand against the planned national curriculum, commonly known as the Common Core, believing that states and communities should decide on their own public school curricula. Standards and curricula that vary widely by state make life harder for families who relocate frequently, and for colleges that need to compare high school students from across the country. From what I have read, a national core curriculum (that could be supplemented and enhanced by each state) is expected to be a bear to implement but well worth the effort eventually.

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A community group called the Napa Valley Ethnic Studies Advocates is hoping to add a series of ethnic studies courses to the curriculum in Napa’s middle schools and high schools. Its first goal is a Chicano studies course in the 2013-14 school year. The group was inspired by Napa Valley College’s popular Mexican-American studies class.

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Sonoma Country Day School in Santa Rosa invites the community at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 16, to hear best-selling author Michael Thompson, Ph.D., speak on the complex social world of children. I heard him speak last year at the Presentation School and I found him to be really insightful. The event is free but you should reserve a seat at www.scdsevents.org.

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I can never resist a great list of educational game web sites. The Tech Learning folks list 40 sites with hot links so you can try them all out straight from their site. bit.ly/PyvGXN

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I am a big fan of CNN’s Student News site. The site provides 10 minutes of commercial-free, cost-free news for middle and high school classrooms via their website, or as a free downloadable podcast on iTunes. www.cnnstudentnews.com. I teach a newspaper elective and send the students to the site frequently to see CNN’s (younger-audience) take on the news of the day.

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I have come across some interesting study tips for academic success, some of which I had never heard before:

• Study in the same place each day (comfy is not as important as consistency).

• Complete homework assignments in the same order (math, science, Spanish, etc.) each day when possible (makes homework less stressful and more efficient).

• Set a goal for how many times you should participate in each class. Doing so improves attention, concentration and in-class learning.

• Continually ask yourself “Am I learning, or just doing.”

• Try to predict exam questions and problems, making note of them as you go along.

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There are a few great technology tools for students that are gaining in popularity. The Livescribe Smart Pen ($120) enables students to digitally capture handwritten notes as well as the audio of their lecture while they write. Evernote is a (free) note-taking program that organizes a student’s notes into online notebooks, which are searchable and accessible from all devices. Study Blue is a (free) tool enabling students to create digital flashcards with images and audio and to use them on any smart phone. The app also remembers which cards you got right or wrong.

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I am eager to write about Sonoma graduates who are doing exciting things with their education and in their careers. Please send me ideas of people to profile.