Two years after the American Council on Education (ACE), the parent company of the General Educational Development (GED) tests, teamed up with Pearson PLC to create the GED Testing Service, the ubiquitous high school equivalency exam is undergoing a makeover. In the coming months, test takers will put down their pencils and close their paper booklets in favor of a completely computerized exam, [...]
Starting with the 2013–2014 school year, students in five states will be spending 300 more hours per year at their desks. Schools in Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, and Tennessee will extend their time with students, individually choosing to accumulate the extra hours through longer days, longer school years or a combination thereof. Advocates claim that this extra time, by providing more student–teacher [...]
Judy Blume: one of the most prolific and influential writers of the young adult (YA) novels publishing craze. Her books, which explore sensitive and real-life topics applicable to many teens, have been both incredibly popular and controversial. Released June 7, the movie adaptation of Blume’s 1981 Bradbury Press novel Tiger Eyes features the first of her books to hit the big screen, yet it remains [...]
Instead of calling attention to students who misbehave, teachers in some schools are now practicing a technique called “active ignoring.” The idea behind it is simple: Teachers are no longer reprimanding students for their bad behavior but instead waiting for them to correct it on their own. When a student exhibits good conduct, they are verbally praised. For example, a teacher won’t acknowledge [...]
The burgeoning use of Internet technologies in the classroom has enabled students to explore a nearly limitless reservoir of human knowledge. In the past four years, however, major research organizations from across the globe have begun to offer students not only access to their findings but also a way to actively participate in gathering, sorting, and analyzing scientific data. Open Air Laboratories, or [...]
As many schools across the country enter their final month, they are another year closer to a drastic change that has been looming for a while. In 2010, the Common Core State Standards (or just the “Standards,” as the Common Core State Standards website refers to them) were developed and introduced. Since then, 45 out of the 50 states, along with a number [...]
Hayley Gundlach began working at PSG as an intern in the summer of 2013. Upon completing her internship, she was hired as an editorial assistant. Hayley recently began her senior year at Emerson College. Hayley Gundlach’s dream jobs are to either become an editor at a large trade publisher or a consultant working on adapting books into films. Determined and studious, Hayley’s organizational [...]
Chicago-based high school student Lane Gunderman will be one of the few kids starting their college career on a full scholarship at Stanford University this fall, but he is also one of the extremely few students in the history of the school who was homeless when he earned his scholarship. Gunderman’s family had always been poor, but six years ago, they were forced to move [...]
When asked by his lawyer where he wanted his earnings to go after his death, C.S. Lewis famously told the man, “After I’ve been dead five years, no one will read anything I’ve written.” Now, 50 years after his death, the C.S. Lewis Foundation is throwing a yearlong celebration to honor Lewis’s legacy. The 50th Anniversary Celebration will last from July 2013 to August [...]
Everyone reacts differently to taking a test. There are the superstitious who wear charms or have rituals that must be done before test day. There are those who get nervous; just the thought of having to take the test makes them sick. There are those who don’t give the test a second thought until the day of. And there are even those who [...]