THE LEARNING POND HAS MOVED TO www.GRANTLICHTMAN.COM

THE LEARNING POND HAS MOVED!! AFTER TWO YEARS, THIS IS THE FINAL POST ON THIS SITE.

Given the rapid growth in my work with schools, I need a more robust website where I can share my blog, new book, new articles, resources, and workshop events. SO THIS IS THE LAST POST ON THIS SITE.

MY NEW SITE IS NOW ACTIVE: WWW.GRANTLICHTMAN.COM

PLEASE GO AND BOOKMARK THE  NEW SITE

YOU CAN FOLLOW MY BLOG AND ACCESS ALL OF THE ARCHIVED BLOGS ON THE NEW SITE. EITHER COPY THE URL INTO YOUR BLOG READER, OR LOOK DOWN THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE NEW SITE AND FIND THE “SUBSCRIBE” BUTTON TO GET AN EMAIL UPDATE WHEN NEW BLOGS ARE POSTED.

In addition to my blog, on the new site you will find:

Link for free download of the Introduction to my new book, #EdJourney: A Roadmap to the Future of Education

Resources: Links to my books, articles, media events, slide decks, and more.

Events: Clients lists, event tracking, and feedback

THANKS FOR FOLLOWING, AND SEE YOU AT GRANTLICHTMAN.COM

 

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Students Don’t Have to Ace SAT’s to Get Into Great Colleges

One of the big obstacles to school innovation I have found is the “dam” of college admissions and college entrance exams that focus on lower-order knowledge acquisition and regurgitation. Anecdotal evidence points to the fact that if a good school de-emphasizes AP’s and college test prep and emphasizes deep, rigorous, student-centered, project-focused learning, their students will be attractive to the most competitive colleges and universities.  But where are the data? How do we answer parents who say “We know the processes of the past have worked to get our kids admitted to good colleges, so why do you want to mess with it?”

There is no one answer. We can cite college presidents and VP of Admissions who tell us that they want to admit creative, deep-thinking young people, but those same colleges still rely heavily on entrance exams, inflated grade records, and AP’s, right?

Twitter colleague Shelley Krause shared this compilation of actual SAT scores in the 25th-75th percentile range at many well-known and selective colleges and universities. Many of their students  are admitted with SAT’s in the 1000-1100 range (1800 scale); this are not low, but neither are they out of reach.

Will this report answer the concerns of parents? Not by itself.  But there is plenty of evidence, including Malcolm Gladwell’s David and Goliath about which I wrote last spring, that there is a broad tier of US colleges and universities that are highly appropriate for, and available to, a range of high school graduates, not just the big name “most selective” schools. We are educators; we are in the business of educating people. We can rail against the college admissions “dam”, and blame “them” for making us focus on objective testing and narrow courses.  Or we can stand up, as many schools already have, and teach our communities that over-concern about college entrance tests and a focus on a small group of college choices is unhealthy for our students and their futures.

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NEW WEBSITE: FIRST NOTICE

I am in the final stages of launching a new web and blog site. It will go live in a week or so. This blog site, The Learning Pond, will become inactive as I move all of my writing and resources to the new site.  All of the archived blogs are moving as well, so nothing is lost. Thanks for being a loyal follower and when the transition is made, please add the new site to your blog reader.  

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