tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33431390.post1703280410653224106..comments2024-03-26T11:07:03.496-04:00Comments on Ed Notes Online: Tyranny of the test: One year as a Kaplan coach in the public schoolsed notes onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15018047869059226777noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33431390.post-73308796179430551032008-09-07T12:06:00.000-04:002008-09-07T12:06:00.000-04:00Listen. Not all test prep is like Kaplan. Some o...Listen. Not all test prep is like Kaplan. Some of us actually hire extremely qualified teachers and design stategies that go beyond "read the passage carefully." How underqualified is Kaplan to really make a difference on tests such as the SAT? Ask yourself this: "If you were a Kaplan executive, would you send your daughter to Kaplan?" If you are a former CEO of the Washington Post and largely responsible for the acquisition of Kaplan many years ago, the answer is NO. That gentleman sent his daughter to my Chyten Educational Services. When asked why, he said, "Because it's my daughter." Nuff said.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33431390.post-57130419277750996992008-08-17T17:33:00.000-04:002008-08-17T17:33:00.000-04:00The section on over-aged and under-credited kids c...The section on over-aged and under-credited kids can give you a sense of what Brooklyn Comprehensive was sometimes like. We didn't have massive ESL, but we had a lot of kids like Yinette, and a lot of classes in which the ebb and flow was full of stops and starts. Attendance was affected by students real lives and its not hard to understand why -- it could take a term or even a year for a student to get his or her life into enough shape to go to school on a regular basis and sometimes they went in and out of "shape". That's why we needed small classes, a lot of time for one-on-one and they took so long to graduate. GED's make things simpler, but it's replacing one set of knowledge that they already have, with a new structure of some of it. Plus, it's giving up on them. Either way KAPLAN was ALWAYS IRRELEVANT to us. We tried hiring in individual tutors once a week and they were helpful, but not enough. The materials are completely useless for kids who are scoring below 500 and I can't believe the folks at JFK didn't know that! We came up with our own SAT Prep for our kids which was useful to them. With over-aged and under-credited kids you really have to design the materials for the kids -- at least, that's what I found. I never found a single textbook that worked. There are too many gaps. You also have to choose works which will fill gaps that they desperately need -- there are contexts that they just plain need to know. I believe the folks at JFK KNOW ALLTHIS and that SOME PRINCIPAL just wanted TO BUY THIS CURRICULUM TO LOOK GOOD.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com