Creativity or Stupidity?

I read today in the newspaper that a teacher in a cash-strapped school district in Idaho made a deal with the local pizzeria: The business will provide paper for handouts, worksheets and tests for his classrooms and in return, on each provided sheet of paper will be an ad for the pizza shop.

So, while taking a history test the kids can already think about which slide of pizza they will buy for lunch: cheese or pepperoni?

According to the newspaper article, some officials applaude the teacher for his creative solution of the spending freeze in his town, others criticize that he crosses a line.

I agree with the critics and find the idea of sponsorships for school material most worrisome. And by the way - what's with the fight against obesity?

SAT Prep

Today, I read an article in our local newspaper about SAT prep courses. Apparently, people in relatively well-off suburbs don't even question the necessity of these courses and spend willingly thousands of $ for SAT prep and college coaches.

I'm wondering whether there are any research studies that prove these classes actually make a huge difference. To me, it seems to be just a big business. My son will take the SAT in spring and I really hope, he will do okay without us spending big money. In two weeks, he will take a free practice test at his high school. Then we will know more.

First SAT exam

Our son Sascha will take his first SAT exam tomorrow. He took biology in his sophomore year, and will take chemistry and physics in junior and senior year. Since he is now finishing biology at school and is studying for the final exam, he figured, he would take the SAT subject test in biology right away so that he won't have to study the material again. It definitely has not been one of his favorite subjects.

His friends told him all kind of horror stories about the exam, and now he is a little nervous about getting a low score and messing up his college prospects. He studied from a prep book for the test and says that some of the topics they never did in class.

From what I read on various websites, this seems to be one of the main hurdles for many students. The content of high school biology courses varies, and therefore many students encounter material on the test that they didn't learn before.

For us this is a new situation. In Europe, each country has a relatively uniform curriculum and all students of the particular country have the same level of education at the end of their school career. In Austria and Germany, students must pass to graduate one big final exam called Matura (Austria) or Abitur (Germany). If you pass, you can go to any university. The test is supervised by the federal department of education of the country and basically the same for all students. Therefore, it's not necessary to do additional testing to compare the ability of students.

In the next two years, my son will encounter many more tests before he graduates. Aside from the SATs, he must also take four AP tests in his senior year if he wants to study in Austria (which we would of course prefer because a semester there would cost only 500 Euro = $770). Without AP exams in math, sciences and one foreign language, Austria will not recognize his high school education as equivalent to an Austrian one. At the moment, Sascha tries to keep the doors open to both possibilities: College here in the States or university in Vienna. We will see....

Websites about SAT:

History of SAT: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/sats/where/history.html

Official Collegeboard website with information about mean scores: http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/sat/scores/understanding/average.html

High school hunting

My younger son is in his last year of middle school, and very soon we must make a decision about high school. We have an excellent high school in Arlington, and my older son (16) is sophomore there. He just loves his school, teachers and classmates.

My 13 year old however never liked school. He hates homework, sitting still, listening, reading..... just everything that kids normally do at school. Therefore, we are looking now for a high school that might be more fun for him. We think, we have found it.

The Regional Vocational High school in Lexington, MA. In addition to the regular High School diploma, the school offers job training. They have programs for 26 occupations, from cosmetology to carpentry, environmental science to graphic & design. After graduation, students can right away start to work in their field or go to college, like students from regular high schools.

We are very excited about this option. Dominic was always more an "artsy' kid, very creative. The graphic & design program seems to be made specifically for him. They will even help him with his portfolio, which he will need to apply at an art college.

For newcomers to the US, the school system can be very confusing, since it's quite different to many other countries. We learned a lot by talking with other parents and by checking out the websites of our school district and of the MA state department of education.