Academic Leaders of Memphis

It is becoming more and more evident that this school year will be as disrupted as last spring. I urge parents to reorient their perceptions and reactions to the many frustrations stemming from these disruptions. In my work with students and families as an Academic Coach, I emphasize adaptive capacity in their thinking. For example, formal education is not a race. It is a journey. Some students may need to consider a modified schedule for enrollment in college. There are ma...ny options to consider: 1. A fifth-year program (European students often do an extra year of high school to maximize their academic skills and content knowledge) prior to students enrolling in their choice for undergraduate studies; 2. Use of a Gap Year Option in tandem with college preparatory activities (Experiential Learning, Language Immersion, Selective completion of core freshman courses through online opportunities). If there are structural barriers due to the pandemic, use a different pathway.

With the absence of a coordinated and strategic response to the highly contagious Covid 19 virus, students, parents, and teachers are facing a school year severely hampered in delivering much needed learning. As a result, alternative resources and strategies are imperative for students to take advantage of this year to mitigate any gaps in their academic progress. Here are some selected effective options available: 1. Khan Academy online high school website ... 2. K-12 online school website 3. ALEKS online math instruction/tutorial program from McGraw-Hill 4. Various Virtual high schools provided by selected states 5. College Board online resources to support AP Students 6. Many colleges and universities provide free access to most of their freshmen courses via Open Courseware online courses. 7. Many school districts put online their articulated curriculum for K-12 classes. Some districts do a much better job than others in making the grade-by-grade content and skills standards accessible and understandable. Contact me with any questions or concerns that you might have dealing with these stressful needs. [email protected]

Students, If you are taking one or more AP, IB, Dual Enrollment courses (College Level/For Credit), there are a number of resources available to add to your effective completion of the course with good results on External Exams: Online Resources Posted by Students and Teachers- AP, IB and Dual Enrollment attract more motivated and resourceful students. As a result, they will post blogs, Study Guides; Chapter Reviews; Lecture Notes; etc. To search for these resources, type... into your Search Engine something like this: AP Biology + Study Guide + National Exam Review + Practice Tests Be on the lookout for homemade entries. Some of the best material online was developed by motivated and energetic students and teachers. There is a TON of material that you are asked to buy.that is up to you; I recommend the homemade. Open-Courseware- Most Colleges and Universities have put most of their core freshman entry level courses online for students (Any Students) to use to help with selected courses. Again, use your Search Engine and enter: Open-Courseware + Calculus + Lectures and Materials You have at your fingertips a variety of professors that present topical/content-driven lectures and resources. StudyBlue.com- This is a share site for college students as well as AP and IB students. Students from all over the world post power-points, quizzes, etc. for anyone to use. You create an account for you (USE A JUNK EMAIL ADDRESSthis is a for profit site that will bombard you with adds if you elect to get the free account option. You will be asked to enter your school name in your account. This way, the search engine in StudyBlue will bring up anything that was posted on the site from your school first. It is a handy option. Selected Websites: o https://www.hippocampus.org/HippoC/History%20&%20Government o https://www.hippocampus.org/ o https://www.biologycorner.com/quizzes/ o https://course-notes.org/us_history This page is one of many AP Study Guides on Course-Notes.com website o https://www.appracticeexams.com/ap-u-s-history/ This page is one of many AP Practice Exams/Many Subjects o http://thecaveonline.com/APEH/ AP European o https://www.adriandingleschemistrypages.com/ o https://quizlet.com/classes/boyd-chemistry/ o https://www.biologyjunction.com/ap_test_study_guides.htm The above sites are but a handful of good sites to help you do well on AP and/or IB exams Dr. New

Students, To ensure that you are learning the material thoroughly and deeply during your hiatus from on-site classes, I can strongly recommend that you use Khan Academy and K-12.com (Accredited Online High Schools) to supplement your understanding and confidence of selected skills and content in your courses. The courses on these two online schools correspond closely to your courses’ outline of topics/skills. All you have to do is go to one or both of these great sites and u...se the instruction and practice test items to solidify your sense of confidence that you have the material completely covered. Remember, you ate learning all of these ideas and skills not just for immediate grades or scores.you will need this bedrock of knowledge when you head off to a challenging program at a college or university in the near future. Again, contact me with any questions or needs that you might have while you are working with online technology to complete your courses for this year. COVID 19 is here for a number of months. Stay the course and, keep your eyes on the prize. Also, if you want, you can share these suggestions with your cohorts.

I’m still meeting with students and parents that are unaware of the significant changes made to the SAT a few years ago and the new changes coming for the ACT. Go to my website, www.academicleaders.net to view my PowerPoint on the structural differences between these two important exams.

Students who took the PSAT last October should take full advantage of their Score Report available through their online account with The College Board website. This software allows students the opportunity to go back through their test questions and examine each of the items that they missed. Most importantly, they can find out WHY they missed selected questions. The software is free and can significantly boost students’ scores on future SAT exams.

The Spring Semester begins! 10th & 11th graders need to take full advantage of the online PSAT Score Report to significantly raise their SAT and ACT scores!! You get to examine and learn from each of the items you missed last October....and it’s free!

My private practice has relocated to Atlanta, Georgia. I continue working with high school students in 4 countries and 7 states using Skype and Google Hangout.

I have been recommending to my students/families that they should view the college admissions process as a consumer in a free market arena. College enrollment is dropping and overall demographic trends are providing students new opportunities to take full advantage of their hard work in high school and seek to negotiate with admissions officers as if they had walked in to any potential financial transaction. Many of the slightly selective to moderately selective private schools are becoming much more aggressive in their recruitment of potential students. Recently, many of my students have used merit scholarships in combination with informed negotiating to gain entry into highly regarded schools for much lower tuition than they expected to have to pay. I’ll have more tips on this important topic over the next few months.

Welcome to your pathway to a great-fit college.

With students applying to more and more colleges these days and with the overall growth in students applying to 4-year colleges and universities, the numbers’ game that is now very much in place requires that students take into full account the role of demonstrated interest in admissions’ decisions. Students need to appreciate the decisions that admissions offices make when they vet thousands and thousands of applications. You may be a fantastic student with a strong GPA ...and some good to great test scores. The problem is.there are lots and lots of other students with a strong GPA and good to great test scores. When an admissions committee has a stack of applications sitting in front of them, they find themselves looking for that oh so important..extra factor! Often, that factor is the reality that you have visited their campus (maybe on multiple occasions), visited with their representative on a number of occasions at college fairs and your school, and you have created a presence during all of these contacts with the school. Presence means you made a good impression on all of these occasions by maintaining good eye contact; asking good questions and setting a good example for yourself (dress/smile/etc.). Very often, the decision to admit or deny boils down to the existence of a critical mass of positive vibrations that you have created through what is called demonstrated interest in the college of your choice.

As I have worked with a number of high school seniors this year, it has become more and more evident that the impact of the Common Application is more complex than I first thought. No doubt, it is a great tool for high school seniors who gain the efficiency of filling out the myriad of information needed for college admission decisions only once. The site also provides students a great number of added benefits through its database functions of keeping up with their applicatio...ns and status. Along with Naviance, there is a tremendous paperless revolution going on within this vast industry. Yet, the ease of application provided by the Common Application software has multiplied college applications exponentially. This has functionally changed the calculus of the admissions industry. Colleges are now faced with ever-growing virtual stacks of applications and find the man-power needs of processing and considering the merits of these applications quite problematic. I would not want to be in college admissions these days. They face an avalanche of applications. How do they sort and carefully consider this pile? Unfortunately, I believe that the only response can be to use admissions testing more extensively to make initial and secondary cuts in applications. This reality magnifies the significance of the ACT and SAT. Both of these exams are flawed indicators of success and contributions to a potential college. They are but one measure.flawed but used extensively. I see ACT and SAT preparation growing even more relevant for students who are not as inclined to perform well on these testing platforms. See more