Annotated Bibliography: Study Skills
Adelman, Clifford. “Answers in the Tool Box: Academic Intensity, Attendance Patterns, and Bachelor’s Degree Attainment.” Washington, DC. US Department of Education, 1999. http://www.ed.gov/pubs/Toolbox/toolbox.html
Academic intensity and quality of one’s high school curriculum are the best indicators of success in college. Mr. Adelman discusses something he calls “opportunity-to-learn’ which encompasses much more than school time. The focus of this article is a study of 10th graders in a national cohort that looked at high school and college transcripts, test scores, and surveys done in 1980. Adelman maintains that the educational system is being challenged simply to maintain, let alone improve, college graduation rates. Some of the key components to college retention and graduation are academic resources available to students before coming to college and continuous enrollment once a true start has been made.
The article goes into selected findings from the study that include high school curriculum, that is the measure producing the highest success rate, as well as the highest level of mathematics one studies, and AP courses. Graduating late has little impact on college success provided the student is continuously enrolled. As well, the number of institutions attended makes little difference, even with the increased rate of 60% students attending multiple institutions starting in the 1990s.
Other areas covered include financial aid issues, remedial courses, test scores and class rank are not significant factors in retention or not. Things that are myths include parents level of education, college preparatory classes, part-time enrollment do not impact retention. The research concluded that it is important to follow the student and not the institution. The most important “tools” for students are intensity and quality of the pre-college curriculum. Advisement that is sensitive and sensible can be a big help as well.
The remainder of the article went into detail about this important study that begin when these students were in 10th grade (1980) and then followed them until they turned 30 years old. This way the study also looked at these individuals post graduation. Additionally, “Answers in the Tool Box” looked at the differences of attending college in the 1990s as opposed to the 1980s. In many cases, it took longer to complete degrees, there was a higher incidence of multi-institution attendance, as well as part-time attendance.
Conclusions were that good institutions of higher education need to become more active providers of that content, expanding the quality of rural schools, community colleges, and providing more opportunities of academic content during non-school time.
Adelman, Clifford. “The Toolbox Revisited: Paths to Degree Completion from High School Through College.” Washington, D.C. American Youth Policy Forum. 2006.
http://www.aypf.org/forumbriefs/2006/fb031706.htm
Article based on surveys conducted around the country on current barriers to retention of students in college. The article identifies three factors to student success: congnitive, social, and institutional. While the focus of this article is on college retention the section that applies to counseling high school students deals with academic services. It makes a strong case for getting adequate advising. Tutoring and mentoring can increase a student’s academic “prowess” and have the greatest impact, although can be costly. Research and experiential opportunities are excellent ways to boost academic ability as well. Pre-college there are programs (some federal) such as TRIO and GEAR UP help students become academically prepared and gain college knowledge (learning about college and what is required). Bridging programs can make the transition for students easier. These occur after high school graduation, but before the first semester of college.
The article goes on to articulate areas to think about in evaluating the programs in place in your instutitions such as review of curriculum, instructional strategies, assessment, and faculty development. There is a checklist to help evaluate the programs your students are involved in.
“Advanced Placement Questions and Answers.” 2006. The College Board Resources for K-12 Higher Education. http://www.collegeboard.com/prof
Recent legislation in US Senate has brought the issue of Advanced Placement into the limelight. Discussion of what role Advanced Placement plays in the education of high school students.
The article proposes that AP classes offered at high schools increases the achievements for all students at that school. The more AP classes offered, the more rigorous and challenging the curriculum becomes in AP and non-AP classes alike. With an increase in AP courses the number of successful AP Exaqm schores (3 or higher) has increased among minority students. The article includes statistics to back up the impact on college performance if students have access to AP level courses. It prepares students for the high level they’ll experience in college.
There is additional information about math and science proficiency compared to other countries, particularly China and India. This accounts for the push to have more AP course offerings especially in math and science. There is concern about preparation before 11th and 12th grade, the years during with students normally take the AP courses. There is beginning to be an effort to prepare students in grades K-10, especially math in grades 6-11. There is a need for funding professional development and student preparation.
This article has to be taken in the context that it appears on the College Board website, which is likely biased towards the AP program, as they administer the tests. It may be useful to counselors for encouraging students to take more rigorous courses in math and science.
Ballte, Judy Shepps. “Why Bright Kids Fail: Helping the Underachiever.” 2002 About Underachieving Teens. http://www.about-underachieving-teens.com/motivate-underachievers.html
This article is designed to reach the parents of underachieving teens. It does a reasonable job of identifying some of the reasons for underachievement but not much in the way of solutions. Other articles appearing on the same page offer more assistance including “Motivating the Underachieving Teen”, and recommendations to other sites on topics such as adolescent mood disorders, depression, and substance abuse.
Bright underachieving teens do not usually know why or how to achieve better grades. It is important to rule out physical or neurological causes, emotional, environmental, and/or family dynamics. Depression can be a common symptom and the article goes on to give the example of a teen who attempted suicide. Effective chemical and talk therapies are advised, though the article is not specific about these. Additional factors can be death of a loved one, illness, and most interestingly unconscious dynamics. The most interesting is permission to be successful. It describes an example of a parent who dissuaded the child from going to college, so they could enter the family business.
The most important element in this article is discussion of changing the label from underachieving to realizing that students have talents and abilities in areas outside of traditional academics. They need permission to pursue these, and have encouragement to follow their passions. The hard part is figuring out what this passion might be.
“Helping Your Child Succeed: What Parents and Families Can Do at Home to Help Their Children Meet High Standards.” American Federation of Teachers.
http://www.aft.org/parents/downloads/HYCS1.pdf
This article is designed for parents of children at all educational levels, but applies to high school students as well. Very simply laid out for parents. Some information may seem obvious to most, but not to all. It includes ideas such as letting the child know you are proud, about providing incentives and rewards for academic accomplishments, and the avoidance of negative labeling. Tips for making homework environments more effective and the importance of homework. Setting limits on television and how to guide students in the selections of material to watch. This probably applies more to younger children, but if applied at a younger age, can be carried forward to teens as well.
Encouraging reading, especially setting an example by being a reader yourself. The article touches on discipline, inculcating basic values, and ways to enhance a student’s learning experiences.
Kobrin, Jennifer L. and Ernest W. Kimmel. “Test Development and Technical Information on the Writing Section of the SAT Reasoning Test .” March 2006. Research Notes. RN-25. The College Board. http://www.collegeboard.com/research/abstract/109966.html
Article begins with description of the multiple choice section of the SAT. It describes grammatical areas covered in this section and then goes on to explain the new essay section. The crucial thing here is that this is a first-draft essay using critical thinking skills, experiences, reading, or observations to support their ideas. The test is designed to determine the student’s ability to do college level work.
The College Board designed the writing section based on the English Composition Test and the SAT Subject Test in Writing. They had assistance from high school and college educators. A study determined that reading and writing skills could be tested. The article also includes a fairly long list of skills that cannot be measured by the SAT writing section. There is also a table of how the test is scored and evaluated. The writing is scored “holistically” , meaning it is considered as a total work, scored by qualified readers who take into account complexity of thought, development, and facility with language. The SAT readers are required to be highly skilled and undergo a rigorous training program.
The article goes on to analyze the first administrations of this new test. Analysis will not be complete until an entire cohort has taken the new writing section. In order to provide guidance, however, there are charts and some analyzing of the results so far. The scoring was extremely consistent among readers, so it is deemed to be a reliable measure. The same test was given to first year college students and there was consistency with that of the high school students. This is an indicator of college success in writing, a key goal for this assessment.
To help prepare students for this section of the SAT the scoring guide included in this article, is a good tool to be sure that students know how to write effectively.
“Organize Your Time and Your Life.” Academic Success Center. George Washington University. http://gwired.gwu.edu/counsel/asc
The George Washington University Success Center has an extensive counseling section which includes a detailed section on time management. A step by step process is included that includes setting priorities, making to-do-lists, creating “at-a-glance” calendars and identifying obstacles to time management. This is a more useful site for the counselor than the student. This site is designed for college students but applies to high school students as well. It is a good way to prepare for the rigors of college.l
A student with time management difficulties is not likely to follow such a detailed program to organize themselves but a counselor can use these tools to assist a student who is having time management issues in getting a better handle on their priorities. There are charts that can be downloaded for making a weekly and monthly schedule, how to make a to-do-list, a chart for prioritizing all activities that is actually quite useful. The best material is in the A-B-C Value Rating which gives tools for looking at all aspects of a student’s life and helping them to get a handle on managing it. The last section on identifying obstacles includes eight different areas that one could easily identify as an issue for most students. For example, procrastination is described in two ways. First, students procrastinate because they do not see the relative value or because of the perceived difficulty of the task. Once these issues are understood it is probably easier for the student to develop tools to deal with them. Often this requires the assistance of a counselor. The website can give the couselor, especially one not as well trained some insights to assisting students, or how to seek additional help for the student.
Rosenbaum, James E. Beyond College for All, Career Paths for the Forgotten Half. New York. Russell Sage Foundation. 2001.
Less than 40% of students who plan to go to college actually earn a two- or four- year degree within 10 years of graduating from high school. This chapter lays out what a student must do if they want to go on to college, and more importantly succeed there. The answer is taking hard classes, doing all homeowkr, and getting good grades in high school.
There is a discussion of the importance of GPA, as the greatest indicator of ability to earn a college degree. Time and money spent on remedial courses if the proper courses were not taken in high school repeat high school material and earn no college credit. The most interesting section discusses the importance of math courses a student takes. 79.8% of students taking high school calculus earn a BA degree. The further a student goes in math in high school, the higher their chance of earning a college degree. Even if the student does not want to go to college, the grade point average predicts future income level. This is useful information to help motivate students to push themselves to the highest level they can handle in high school. However, it is important that students understand that they should not push themselves beyond their capability. Finding their highest level of capability is the challenge.
Counselors and parents play a key role in this area. Both have generally abdicated their responsibility, not wanting to “interfere” in the student’s path. Heavy handed gatekeeping is no longer advisable, but correct information and encouragement should be a key element in raising the bar for students. This book lays out well the disconnection between all stake holders including the students, parents, counselors, educators, and employers. It is a sociological study useful for insights but short on practical tools.
Rothman, Robert. “A Test Worth Teaching To, The IB’s Course Guides and Exams Make a Good Marriage.” American Educator, Summer 2002.
http://www.aft.org/pubs-reports/american_educator/summer2002/testworthteaching.html
The International Baccalaureate (IB) examinations encourage high levels of instruction and achievement. The article begins with an explanation of what IB is and how it was developed for mobile foreign diplomats so that there would be a consistent program across locations. It has begun to be popular in the US as well. The program adds rigor to the high school curriculum as well as challenging expectations for student performance.
The article goes on to describe the features of the program which allow teachers to choose which topics to cover and allows students a choice of which questions to answer on the examinations. This creates a balance between breadth and depth and between knowledge of facts and the ability to understand concepts. This program focuses on the junior and senior years with both internal and culminating assessments as well as designated special projects in six academic areas across the spectrum of requirements. In addition students must take Theory of Knowledge, an interdisciplinary course in issues such as subjective bias and evaluating evidence used to support arguments. An extended essay of 4000 words on a topic of their choice is one of the required projects students must complete.
Students enrolled in this program have significantly outperformed those in countries that do not have this program available. The expectations for performance are very clear, teachers receive extenstive professional development, and 80% of students who attempt the IB diploma achieve it. In terms of American universities, the IB diploma helps students gain college scholarships and even up to a year’s worth of college credit. Another benefit is the program in foreign language has been shown to give students in 4 years what another program would take 5 years to cover.
The article continues with examples of some of the programs that exist in the US. This program is typical in most high-achieving countries but rare in the US. There is a small growing number of IB programs in which teachers get to use their own skills to design a creative and challenging instructional program, while covering the major themes and materials for more detailed study of specific academic areas. Many of the examples given are in the history curriculum.
The exams that culminate the studies allow students to demonstrate their knowledge as well as their deep understanding. Teachers attend triaining workshops as well as networking less formally. As this type of program can be a stretch for many students, especially if their preparation before high school was not up to the standard, some schools restrict entry to the IB program to those who can demonstrate through testing and other measures that they are capable of handling the work. Some programs allow selection of individual academic areas, similar to the individual AP decision.
There is some discussion about developing stronger programs in the Middle Years, and there are a few such programs currently underway. Obstacles are covered in this article which include cost of the program, which is currently being subsidized in a few states. The calendar of US high schools is also a hinderance, and professional development time is also a factor. The amount of testing coupled with the current level of standardized testing in the US is causing some test fatigue among students. It also becomes a time factor for teachers having to give up so much class time for the test-taking. Overall there is great enthusiasm for the program, and it appears to be growing in popularity.
“Ten Traps to Studying.” Counseling and Psychological Service, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill http://php.unc.edu/ovcsa/caps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=73
This article is useful to all students, as the traps to studying are something all students experience. This is an easy to use list that a student could look at and easily identify which apply to them specifically. It is laid out in one sheet and written in easy language. It is also something useful to counselors, as it is easily copied and handed to students without searching on the web.
Two of the most common traps that are listed involve “Getting it to Sink In” and “Test Yourself.” Each of these has easy to use tools to help the student study more effectively. If you want more, there are additional articles that go into more detail about several issues that students encounter in preparing for and taking tests. The second article identifies good study habits such as doing difficult tasks first and having a special place to study. The third article includes tips for taking all types of tests more effectively. This includes rules of essay tests, mutiple choice, and problem tests. The last article is a long list of obstacles to success that is more useful for the counselor than the student, or doing this together, as these obstacles may need more than identificiation. There is also an excellent list of suggested strategies for preparing for tests.