John Allen Paulos is a popular speaker and writer as well as a professor of mathematics at Temple University in Philadelphia with a Ph.D. in the field. Paulos used to be a columnist writer for ABC News’ “who’s counting?” series where he wrote multiple stories such as, “Do SAT Scores Really Predict Success?” where he talks about how SAT scores do foresee a student’s success not only in college but later in life. This is a particularly interesting article to read because there are parts where I questioned Paulos’ ethos because of some of his comments did not make sense. On the other hand, he uses some statistics to strengthen his arguments as well as talk about the correlation between SAT scores and a first-year student’s success. For example, Paulos says “the SAT scores of students at elite schools are considerably higher than those of students at …show more content…
“Colleges usually accept students from a fairly narrow swath of the SAT spectrum” (Paulos) but they do not look at the applicant’s interests, hobbies or skills, or, at least, that’s what it looks like. Many colleges ask for an essay that demonstrates an applicant’s interest in a prompt, or the college but it does not compensate for the score that the applicant received in the writing section on the SAT. On the other hand, it seems that community colleges give a positive prospect just looking for an education. “Those schools that attract students with a wide range of SAT scores generally have higher correlations between the scores and first-year grades.” (Paulos). In the last section of the article, Paulos introduces the SAT (Soccer Assessment Test) which tests a player’s performance by measuring “the speed, coordination, strength, and soccer experience of students in a certain city.” (Paulos). This analogy of the scholastic SAT misses the goal for numerous reasons with that one statement
In the article, Gregory Mantsio reveals a chart based on the test results of 1,465,744 SAT takers in the year of 2006. The chart given, displays the amount of the family income and how it affects the scores of those who had taken the SAT. The facts given, indicates that the more money the family has, income that the family receives, the higher the scores are. For example, if you had a job or career that allowed you to be able to bring in more than $100,000, then your child is more likely to receive a median score of approximately 1,100. But the question is, how can this be so? One reason is quite simple: The children born into a higher class has much more access to educational resources, are exposed to vocabulary and spoken language in their early childhood, and experience less stress than those who are in a lower class. Which in the long run, gives the children in the higher class a better chance when it comes to succeeding in life. Compared to those in a lower class whose scores are below the approximated amount of 1,100 due to their family
Education” by Russell Baker, the author argued that many student futures are based off of a test score - whether that test is a state-regulated test or a test required for admission to college. Society measures what we learn by tests and schools receive more funding for better scores. Baker explained that many students base their intelligence on these test scores, and many institutions focus on test scores more than anything else. However, every student learns that their education and their future is based off of the score that they receive on tests. Baker said that this is “[a period that a child] learns that success come from telling testers what they want to hear” (225). Teachers don’t teach the content but teach students how to make educational guesses. I considered myself to be “dumb” because I did not get a satisfactory score on the ACT. Therefore, I didn’t think I would be a good candidate for college because I would not receive personal funding in the form of scholarships and I didn’t know whether or not I would be accepted into college. This score convinced me that I would not be able to complete college work and that I would only have a future working minimum wage jobs. However, I realized that I was smarter than my test score told me that I was. In the end, the author and I both agreed that students should not be subjugated by the scores provided by an invisible
The final assumption that is not as expressed as often is the thought that Community colleges have low academic standards. However, this is just simply not true. students usually have to take placement tests in order to qualify for college level work. Technical and special programs have high standards and students compete to enroll. Going off that, community colleges just offer extra support to students to see them succeed.
Servant leadership is a designation coined by Robert Greenleaf in 1970 in an essay entitled The Servant as Leader. In this essay, he describes the servant leader and a servant first contrary to one who is a leader first. The difference is the servant chooses to put others needs before his own while the leader first may later become a servant from the promptings of a sense of right and wrong or simply because they are coerced in that direction (Greenleaf, 1991).
A scholarly journal written by an anonymous author sheds light on the importance of standardized testing by showing its efficiency in higher level education. This article provides a solid counterargument for the use of standardized tests which is standardized tests being a good source of predicting grades throughout college as well as whether students will stay long enough to graduate. It is also able to establish that the SAT is effective in forecasting a grade-point average through the fourth year as well as predicting students study habits. The
... a tedious process, but the change can have immense, positive effects for the future college student. The ACT and SAT that supposedly measure a student's learning potential through multiple-choice questions should be replaced by a test of a student's desire to learn determined through the analysis of essays, recommendation letters, and school or community involvement. This change can result in a more academically motivated freshman class. Standardized testing in its current form does not accurately measure most students' learning potential. It does not allow for diversity and creates a huge hurdle for many potential academic achievers. An adjustment to a diverse, open testing format of the ACT or SAT and a stress on the student's other academic accomplishments can accurately measure the student's desire to learn, therefore measuring the student's learning potential.
No matter the previous career path, preventive circumstances, prior academic history or lack of self-confidence, these colleges provide the tools for anyone to further their education. The common students at these facilities understand the importance of education because they’ve experienced the beast of life. One could argue that perhaps this understanding goes a bit deeper than that of one at a four year institution. Any way you slice it, community colleges offer the ability for everyone to academically arrive on common ground. This should be a triumph, not a
In the article “Don't Send Your Kid to the Ivy League” by William Deresiewicz, Deresiewicz explains the flaws within the coveted ivy league system. He begins by explaining his experience in the ivy league acceptance process and how the applications are read and judged by the acceptance panel, some applicants have too many educational qualifications and too few extracurricular activities, others have too many extracurricular activities but low GPA’s and class rankings, and others must be judged based on contributions to the college by their parents. He then transitions into how college students have over achieved but have no purpose or drive, they do things to get into college but don’t know why they want to go or what they
John W. Gardner born 1912, had a varied and productive career as an educator, public official, and political reformer. Gardner's belief in society's potential was his guiding force, but he was wary of the dangers of complacency and inaction. Perhaps best known as the founder of the lobby Common Cause, he was the author of several best-selling books on the themes of achieving personal and societal excellence.
The author, Frank Bruni’s, main argument was that college admissions were being too selective in their process, and that they were looking into the wrong details of the student. He talks about how there will be a report coming out in the very near future from top administrators like Yale, M.I.T. and the University of Michigan, called “Turning the Tide”, that will point out the flaws within the admissions process of top schools. The author thinks that, “Focused on certain markers and metrics, the admissions process warps the values of students drawn into a competitive frenzy.” Not only does it bring out unhealthy competitiveness, it gives unfair opportunities to kids who come from less fortunate backgrounds. The report outlines, “Less emphasis on standardized test scores, which largely correlate with family income.”
Facing something that we want to judge, we can not only find its disadvantages, then ignore its advantages and values, and that’s the same for colleges. As a matter of fact, we need to face everything with fair judgements rather than prejudices. Community college or two-years college is good for us to choose; don’t let the prejudices influence our
Thousands of students around the country and around the world will be preparing for the SAT and ACT tests while trying to maintain a high GPA. These tests will potentially have a significant impact on students' lives. Some will be taking these tests for the second or even third time to get that 1500 out of 1600 or that 33 out of 36, that they long desire. These flawed tests are not truly able to measure how well students will perform in college as they are supposedly used to predict. A single test that students have to wake up for at six, seven in the morning on a Saturday and travel to some random location to take a difficult test should not impact the student's chance of getting into college, let alone predict how well they will do in college.
While universities require their applicant to be somehow professional before they admit them, community colleges allow their students to enter the college experience as rookies-inexperienced- and give them the opportunity to reach professionalism. Addison herself writes “you will grow up with your first English class a bit more with your first psychology class, a whole lot more with your first biology, physics, chemistry”(257). Addison’s point is that community college are built in a way to help its student start from where they finished high school without having to get use to a whole new environment. How can we expect an adolescent to focus on their studies while they have a lot of changes going on in their life? Is it even possible for them to succeed with all those changes going on in their life? In Addison’s perspective, that is why community colleges still matter, because they can help those student, who have to learn to live like adults while their academic success is not affected.
With the growing amount of students attending college, many more people would obtain a degree. While this may seem like a benefit to the American citizens, the consequences pertaining to a raise in college degrees earned by citizens would significantly lessen the positive effects of it. If American citizens obtaining a community college degree becomes commonplace, it would lessen the value of the degree overall. A community college degree may be viewed in a similar manner as high school degrees. With several thousand people having access to a community college degree, the requirements of jobs that currently require an associate degree would likely increase as well. The need for a bachelor’s degree, or even a master’s degree, would rise with the familiar nature of degrees from a community college. A growing amount of degrees’ causes the degrees to be valued less than
Well those four years go by a lot faster than one can imagine and many of students do not prepare nor get their GPA to a level that is accepted by universalities. Most community colleges are open enrollment, which means that any high school graduate or GED holder is eligible to attend them. Students looking to attend a two-year college may have to take a placement test. This test does not determine if a person is eligible to attend the college or not, but determines if the individual may need additional developmental courses pier to attending college-level courses (Why Community College, 2014). The Admission requirements for four-year colleges vary, however universities are not open enrollment. There are many of factors that are reviewed when enrolling into a University, such as a high school GPA, ACT scores, and SAT scores. The ACT is a multiple-choice test that consists of English, Mathematics, Reading, and Science. This test is designed to measure a student’s achievements related to high school curricula (Description of the ACT, 2014). The purpose of the SAT is to test a persons reading, writing, and math skills to show colleges what a student knows and how well they can apply there knowledge (About The Test). The enrollment process at a