Varsity Tutors brings you insider tips and advice straight from nationally recognized admissions experts. Emily Glickman is the founder and president of Abacus Guide Educational Consulting, a leading private school consulting service in New York. She currently serves as an alumni admissions interviewer for Columbia University and is a vastly well-known expert on private school admissions. Emily has also been featured in several prestigious publications such as The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. VT: What is the typical timeline for private school admissions? Emily: Families should start to think about private school admissions ab... Read More About Ask a Private School Admissions Expert: Emily Glickman

The following piece was written by Eddie LaMeire. Eddie has been featured in our Admissions Expert series and has previously worked in admissions at Loyola University and University of California at San Diego. He is also the founder of LaMeire College Consulting.   Last year, NPR ran an April Fools’ story on the so-called “Porsafillo Preschool Academy,” a fictional school taking drastic measures to ensure the “quality” of the students they admitted. What was so interesting about the piece, entitled, “N.Y. Preschool Starts DNA Testing for Admission,” was that it resembled a real NPR rep... Read More About How to Choose Extracurricular Activities in Middle School

The State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) is a series of standardized exams used by Texas public schools students to assess students’ academic abilities.  The STAAR test is based on state standards which provide a framework for the material students should be learning in the classroom each year.  The exam measures the academic achievement and learning – in other words, to evaluate how well students are meeting Texas’ grade-level expectations.  Public school students are not the only ones required to take the STAAR assessment.  Any charter school, private school, or homeschooling that co... Read More About Essentials Of The New STAAR Tests

Which is better: the Independent School Entrance Exam (ISEE) or the Secondary School Aptitude Test (SSAT)? Well, both are used for entrance into private/independent schools, but they’re not exactly interchangeable. Some independent schools will accept only the ISEE, others only the SSAT, and some will consider whichever test you scored higher on. But, before you spend tons of hours prepping for one test, make sure the school(s) you’re interested in accept it. Test levels: First of all, the ISEE has three levels: lower for students currently in grades 4-5, middle for grades 6-7 and upper for grades 8-11. The SSAT only has two leve... Read More About Comparing The ISEE And The SSAT

The Verbal Reasoning section kicks off the ISEE (for every level), and it mostly tests your vocab skills. You’ll see two types of questions: synonym recognition and sentence completion. See more from Varsity Tutors on general ISEE tips and ISEE information: how to improve your ISEE score. Synonym recognition: Here, you are given a word and you have to choose the synonym (or the word closest in meaning) out of the four answer choices given. Think of the definition of word: And try to use it in a sentence before you start reading the answer choices because they are written to confuse you. Break words down: Consider the following exampl... Read More About How To Increase ISEE Verbal Scores

The Independent School Entrance Exam (ISEE) is the first of many huge, high-pressure tests your child will take, and giving him/her the right mindset is just as important as ISEE prep. Sure, knowing the ISEE problems and patterns can dramatically improve your score. But, how you motivate your child can make the biggest difference. Don’t pressure your child: There is a lot riding on this test. It can determine your child’s education all the way through high school and possibly even college. If you bring this up, your child’s head is going to start spinning. Don’t tell them that they “need” to perform well o... Read More About How To Improve ISEE Scores

If you’re not proficient in algebra, then you’ll stand just about no chance with Calculus, Geometry, Trigonometry, Statistics or any other high school math class. Students must learn algebra first, and that’s why many educators believe it is the most important math class. For years, algebra was a high school freshman level class, and very few students took it before their freshman year. But, administrators eventually began pushing heavily for students to start algebra classes in the 8th grade or sooner, according to an article in the District Administration. And now administrators are pushing even harder for students to tak... Read More About Why Algebra Skills Are Important

What would it take to get a flawless attendance record from your kid? Baseball tickets? Gift cards? A necklace? How about an automated wake-up call from former NBA-great Magic Johnson? A handful of schools in New York City are actually doing all of those to help increase school attendance through politicians and administrators collaboration, according to an article in the New York Times. And it’s working. On any given day one out 15 elementary students is absent in NYC public schools, compared to one out of 13 in 2007 and one out of nine in 1995. Other NYC schools have taken larger strides to increase attendance. The Center for New Y... Read More About Why Students Are Being Rewarded To Attend School

The government is investing heavily in early childhood education, trying to get students school-ready earlier. This will then cut down on “catching up time,” making class time more efficient, according to an article in the District Administration. The U.S. Department of Education has collaborated with the Department of Health and Human Services to create a $500 million grant for early childhood education.  The government is also throwing in incentives to encourage states to promote early childhood education. Under Obama’s Race to the Top, states can earn extra funding if they create better early childhood education pro... Read More About Why The Dept Of Education Is Investing In Early Childhood Education

There has been a lot of talk and buzz about how bad the American education system is, why it’s so bad and whose fault it is. And on the fault side, nearly everyone who is connected to education has been blamed for the lackluster system. But, what happens when we stop talking about why it stinks, and start trying to make it better? The District Administration tried to answer that question. The 2009 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) compared the achievement gains between American and foreign students. It found that American students were not achieving as quickly or as strongly as many other foreign countries, thus start... Read More About How To Fix American Schools

Typically, most school children eat lunch then head off to recess. That’s just the way the curriculum has been set for years. But, what’s more appealing to little Johnny an apple or a game of dodge ball outside? He’s probably just eating some of his sandwich and his snack pack, trying to get to his game of dodge ball as fast as possible. But, kids will actually finish their whole lunch if they eat after recess, giving them the nutrition they need, according to an article in the District Administration. “We tell kids not to eat and swim right away. And yet here we are, telling them that the quicker they eat, the quic... Read More About Why Recess Should Be Before Lunch

You’re a teacher. Your performance is evaluated by teachers, judged and rated by teachers. Your mentor is a teacher, and your boss is a teacher. Imagine that. Would you love it or hate it? What if you’re a student or parent – how do you feel then? The Montgomery County Public Schools system in Rockville, Maryland has a unique process of teachers evaluating other teachers, according to an article in the New York Times. Stronger teachers provide support to weaker ones, and teachers there also have the power to fire weaker teachers if they do not improve.  The program, Peer Assistance and Review (PAR), allows more senior... Read More About How Teachers Can Support And Evaluate Other Teachers

Save the arts – that’s the mantra of many educators. But, after all, it could be the arts that save us. Funding for arts education is consistently cut and decreased when budgets become tighter. Some administrators and educators don’t believe it’s as important as other subjects, and it’s incredibly more difficult to measure the effects of an arts program. But, a presidentially-appointed committee on arts education is trying to change the perception of arts education, according to an article in the Washington Post. The committee is arguing that arts education can help students at all levels find their voice and h... Read More About Why The Arts Are Crucial To Education

Researchers at the Numerical Cognition Lab and the University of Chicago have been analyzing the causes of "math anxiety".  This is a situation familiar to many K-12 students, who seem to freeze when they see a math problem.  Their research shows that the anxiety of math teachers and parents can rub off on their students, ultimately affecting their learning. Fortunately, proven classroom methods have also been tested to reduce students' anxiety of doing mathematics.  These tips include: Focus on learning the process behind math concepts, rather than merely trying to get a right answer. Similarly, don't refer to the t... Read More About Analyzing Math Anxiety

Dave Eggers and Ninive Clements Calegari of the New York Times say teachers are underpaid and blamed entirely way too much for the underachieving American education system. In their argument, Eggers and Clements Calegari compared teachers to military professionals. “We don’t say, ‘It’s these lazy soldiers and their bloated benefits plans! That’s why we haven’t done better in Afghanistan!’ No, if the results aren’t there, we blame the planners. We blame the generals, the secretary of defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff,” writes Eggers and Clements Calegari. So why shouldn’t we treat ... Read More About Increase Teacher Pay To Improve Academics

Budget cuts have trickled all the way down to early-childhood education, as funding for these programs has decreased between 2009 and 2010, according to a study published in the Washington Post. The Obama administration urged states to increase their pre-kindergarten programs for three- and four-year-olds, but there simply wasn’t enough funding to meet the president’s request. Total-state funding for these programs dropped about $30 million across the nation. Many states are putting most or all of their funding dollars in K-12. So, decreasing funding for early-childhood education has helped many states preserve funding for K-12,... Read More About Decreased Funding For Early Childhood Education

The College Board, the creators of the SAT, introduced a junior version of the exam for eighth graders in 2010 called the ReadiStep, according to an article in the New York Times. The ReadiStep is a two-hour test and has questions written in the same style as the PSAT and the SAT. The test is scored 2-8 for each section, similar to the 20-80 score range on the PSAT and SAT. Nearly 250,000 students have already taken this test in the fall of 2010, most of whom are in Texas because the state education department offered to cover the test’s $8 charge for every student as part of a larger college-readiness program. The College Board ... Read More About Another Pre Pre SAT Test

Earlier this year, the Obama administration discussed plans to change the No Child Left Behind act with the media. Journalists and education administrators alike thought Obama was bluffing, trying to create action in policy makers.  It was no bluff. The Obama administration asked Congress to rewrite the No Child Left Behind law on Monday, March 14, in an effort to accelerate its public education overhaul, one of Obama’s major goals, according to an article in the Washington Post. The Obama administration has been aggressively pursuing education reform and plans to have the new version of No Child Left Behind law implemented by the... Read More About Changes Likely For NCLB

Students who like their teachers learn more, according to a new report cited in the New York Times. This study, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is seeking to distinguish the good teachers from the bad. Students who described their teachers as skillful at maintaining classroom order, at focusing their instruction and at helping their students learn from their mistakes learned more than their fellow classmates, as measured by their outperforming them on standardized test scores, according to the report. This report is part of a larger, two-year project that the Gates Foundation is funding to enhance education. This two-year p... Read More About How To Assess Teachers

Higher spending on public schools does not always translate to success, according to an article in The District Administration.             Politicians and education administrators typically place a high emphasis on spending for schools. When schools lag behind and students are not achieving, the quick fix is always more spending.             In June 2010, the U.S. Census Bureau released education funding per-state and per- student for the 2007-2008 school year. The study discovered that the average spending for an American public st... Read More About Education Funding And Success

     Schools across the country are giving authority back to the teachers by throwing out the administrative grips. At these schools, teachers are solely making all the administrative decisions and teaching.             Palmer Park Predatory Academy (P3A) will open in Detroit in the fall of 2010 with no principal or other administrators. This school will replace the Barbara Jordan Elementary school, which was recently labeled as a low-performing school, according to an article in The District Administration. The Detroit public school system realized that a dramatic tu... Read More About Teacher Led Schools

The days of greasy, unhealthy hamburgers, deep fried chicken nuggets and Sloppy Joe’s – made famous by Saturday Night Live – are numbered. School lunches will soon be healthier, according to an article from The Associated Press.             These items will not be completely removed from school cafeterias; however, they will be made healthier. Also, high-calorie, sugary sodas will not be as readily available.             First lady Michelle Obama’s vision of healthier school lunches has gained the support of m... Read More About Healthier School Lunches

            A study recently conducted by the Annie E. Casey Foundation revealed that a third- grader’s ability to read can predict his/her success later in life, according to an article in The Salt Lake Tribune.             "Up to third grade, children are learning to read," Abel Ortiz told The Salt Lake Tribune, the foundation's director of evidence-based practices. "Starting in fourth grade, they are reading to learn. So if they don't learn to read by third grade, that greatly impacts their ability to learn in later years." ... Read More About Reading In The Third Grade

The ripple effects of the economic recession are continuing to surge through education as many public high schools are preparing to layoff tens of thousands of teachers nationwide, according to a recent article from The Washington Post.             These layoffs will result in larger class sizes and some schools will be forced to cut certain programs and classes. California, Illinois, Michigan, New York and New Jersey are likely to be hit the hardest with the most faculty layoffs.             Congress is currently considering impleme... Read More About Massive Teacher Layoffs Imminent