SAT Adversity Score

SAT Adversity Score The SAT Adversity Score is supposed to give context to an applicants SAT score by rating his or her neighborhood and high school. The College Board, which administers the SAT, recently introduced its Environmental Context Dashboard (ECD), but it quickly became known as the Adversity Score. The College Board claims this score allows colleges to incorporate a students school and environmental context into their admissions process in a data-driven, consistent way. The Adversity Score does not alter SAT scores or take into account a students personal characteristics beyond their test scores. Instead, it aggregates publicly available information about schools and neighborhoods. It has three components: Students'SAT scores can be seen within the context of the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentile of SAT scores from their high school. Information on the high school, including senior class size; percentage of students who meet federal eligibility criteria for free and reduced-price lunch; rurality/urbanicity; average first-year SAT score of colleges students from that high school attend; and the percentage of seniors taking an Advanced Placement exam and other information about AP scores and exams. Contextual data on the neighborhood and high school environment, which is calculated using data drawn from a combination of publicly available sources (e.g. U.S. Census Bureau and National Center for Education Statistics). The goal is to allow them to view a students academic accomplishments in the context of where they live and learn. Whether college admissions officers decide to consider the Adversity Score is up to them. The College Board claims the information is not intended to replace or contradict existing information about schools and neighborhoods. It will refresh its Adversity Scores underlying data each year. The tool was piloted for use by admissions officers at 50 colleges and universities in 2018-2019. This fall, the College Board will expand the pilot to more than 150 colleges in a research partnership and continue to shape the tool. It will become broadly available in 2020. Anecdotal feedback from the initial pilot is that the Adversity Score helped colleges recognize hardworking students who care about school but might come from an environment that made it difficult to fully thrive. Some admissions officers reported that the Adversity Score helped them contextualize college entrance exam scores within a high school to give a better idea of what success looks like in a certain area. More information about the Environmental Context Dashboard aka Adversity Score is available on the College Board website.

Why Your Middle School Student Should Get Into Reading

Why Your Middle School Student Should Get Into Reading 5 Reasons Why Your Middle School Student Should Get Into Reading The middle school years can be a difficult time. Students are adjusting to a higher level of academic expectations while all the while going through a major life transition. Emotions run high, and the stress of school can become overwhelming. As a result, middle school students begin to view learning as something negative and can take this feeling with them into their high school years. One of the best ways to keep a student interested in learning as well as to help them be successful academically is to encourage them to read. They dont need to read anything in particular; they just need to be working on reading comprehension in some form or another our private Orange County reading tutoring will help your child learn to love to read. 1.   Keep confidence high Middle school can be especially difficult if a student lacks the confidence to do well in their core subjects, one of which is reading and writing. Students will often be asked to read in front of the class or will need to comprehend something their teachers read to them quickly. When students read for fun, they have a chance to sound out difficult words or learn how to determine a word’s meeting in context in a low-pressure environment. When students complete all of this practice at home, it makes classroom reading much easier and keeps self-esteem high during this important part of life (READ: 5 Tips to Encourage Your Child to Read). 2.   Maintain reading as a skill Elementary school kids learn a ton of different skills, one of the most important of which is reading. However, students often start to backtrack on these important skills once they reach the stresses of middle school. Students who read at home for fun are a lot more likely to maintain the skills theyve already learned and been able to build upon them when new and challenging assignments come along. 3.   Learn how to speed read and look for keywords Middle school is also a time when students will need to be able to read fast and still understand information in the text or be able to skim for information and keywords in textbooks that are upwards of 1,000 pages long. This can be overwhelming in conjunction with all the other assignments students get from their classroom teacher, so its something thats better supplemented in a low-pressure home environment. If students need specific help learning how to search for keywords or terms, they can ask their tutor or parents to help them figure out what theyre doing right and what they need to work on. 4.   Learn about an exciting new subject Kids at this age often feel stifled because they focus primarily on core subjects in the classroom. As important as core subjects may be, kids need more intellectual and creative stimulation to maintain interest in their education. When students read at home, they can explore any exciting new subject that peaks their interest. In this case, kids can enjoy reading about whatever theyre into at the moment so that their love of reading, and learning in general, stays intact. 5.   Use the imagination Perhaps the most important reason for middle school students to get into reading is to use their imagination. Younger kids have great imaginations, but they often lose this way of thinking once they get into high school. The longer a kid reads about fantasy and fiction the more likely they’ll be to keep their all-important ability to imagine new things. Having an imagination can help older students think outside the box, find solutions to difficult problems, and just enjoy all the creative aspects of art and literature as part of a well-balanced academic life. Is your child struggling with reading? Our Orange County reading tutors are here to help. Call TutorNerds today for more information. All blog entries, with the exception of guest bloggers, are written by Tutor Nerds. Are you an education professional? If so, email us at pr@tutornerds.com for guest blogging and collaborations. We want to make this the best free education resource in SoCal, so feel free to suggest what you would like to see us write.