Advanced Placement courses are on the rise in American schools. There are 37 courses in 22 subjects sponsored by the College Board being offered in high schools around the country as well as internationally. More than 450,000 students passed at least one AP course in 2009. The College Board boasts that Advanced Placement courses help students get a jump on college-level work and [...]
"For much of the last century, educators and many scientists believed that children could not learn math at all before the age of five, that their brains simply were not ready." When I read this in a recent New York Times article I was somewhat surprised to learn that this was the common belief among educators. Fortunately there is a rapidly growing base [...]
My dad is an English teacher. He’s been teaching since the day I was born. When my dad started his career, things were different for both teachers and students. After nearly 30 years as the Andover High School English Department Head (yes, the very high school I attended), a move across the country and a short-lived “retirement phase,” my dad began teaching again. [...]
The dip in the U.S. economy is having an effect on class sizes. As state revenues go down, the number of students in an average classroom is going up. As a result, classrooms across the country will be more crowded when school starts in the fall. A recent survey by the American Association of School Administrators found that 44 percent of school districts [...]
I was reading eSchool News recently and ran across an article that said the new 21st Century skills guide is available. It hasn’t been updated for six years, so it might be worth getting a copy to scan to see what the Partnership for 21st Century Skills organization views as relevant changes. A revision worth noting in the guide is the Self-Assessment Tool which helps [...]
I only graduated high school two years ago, but my learning experience has already become outdated. In a classroom at Emerson College this past year, I was asked to use social media, much to my bewilderment. My professor set up a crowdsourcing website—a form of media I had never even heard of—for us to compile each day’s notes. Crowdsourcing has been used for many [...]
Parents are making their voices heard regarding the amount of homework their children are bringing home each day. Many school officials are starting to listen. How much is too much? A Duke University psychology professor says students should have 10 minutes of homework each evening for each grade they are in school. So a fifth grader would have 50 minutes of homework a night. As [...]
It’s not news that advancements in technology have rapidly changed the way we read. Riding Boston’s subway during rush hour on a Monday morning is the only evidence I need. I see a wide variety of media: Kindles, iPads, Nooks, Androids. Oh, and the occasional hardcover and newspaper. Sometimes I feel terribly outdated balancing my coffee in the crook of my arm while [...]
The number of students taking Advanced Placement exams has been rising from year to year. In 2010, just under two million students took over three million AP exams, up about 10% from 2009. The College Board, which sponsors the AP exam, offers thirty-four courses that, if a student scores high enough on the exam, can transfer over to college credit. Fifty-eight percent of [...]
Although solid, accurate content continues to be at the core of successful instructional programs, the means by which content is delivered to students and teachers has taken on a variety of forms that have gone way beyond traditional print products. Here are some of the "non-print" projects we've been involved in lately at Publishing Solutions Group: PSG prepared Spanish translation and audio recordings [...]