All Articles tagged high-school.

Preparing For An Evaluation IEP Meeting

February 29, 2024 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

You’ve been worried for some time and suspect that something more might be getting in the way of your child’s classroom achievement and interest in school. You’ve talked informally with teachers over the years and perhaps provided some extra support at home, but it’s still not enough. You finally decided to make a formal request to your child’s school stating your concern and requesting that an IEP meeting take place. Within 10 school days, you will receive a phone call inviting you to discuss your student and begin the IEP process, and, within 60 days, you will be invited to an educational planning meeting for your student’s IEP. Whether it’s your initial referral meeting, or a re-evaluation meeting, there’s preparation to do, although the two processes definitely have differences. In this article, we’re going to focus on the initial referral meeting, also called an IEP Evaluation Meeting (or Educational Planning Conference per NYC DOE paperwork).

If you suspect your child has an educational disability, you may request an educational evaluation or screening by contacting the school in writing. Your request should state that you suspect that your child has an educational disability and that you would like the assessment process to begin. No matter the school system, evaluations must be completed and shared with you at a meeting within 60 school days from your request. In NYC, the first step the school must take, after receiving a request for an evaluation, is to schedule a meeting with a social worker to take a social history and to secure written informed consent before starting the evaluation. At My Learning Springboard, we advise that you organize a private, comprehensive evaluation, in which case you’ll share it with the school once it’s finalized and at least 5 to 10 days ahead of the scheduled meeting. The school system will then propose any supplemental testing they feel is necessary when you meet.

To prepare for an initial referral meeting, whether it is with the school team, an intake social worker, or school psychologist, you should have the following information organized and available:

Documentation of your area of concern(s), such as poor achievement on school and standardized tests; work samples; report cards and report card comments; conference notes from school personnel; and/or outside assessments or reports. NOTE: outside assessments or reports need to be given before a meeting—if they are shared at the time of the actual meeting, the team has to stop the meeting and reconvene at a later date after the private testing has been properly reviewed. The timeline for “in advance of the meeting” isn’t perfectly clear, so allowing for at least 5-10 school calendar days is recommended.
If your child has behavioral and/or social-emotional issues, you should have documentation of those as well in the form of teacher comments; outside interventions; or school-developed behavior contracts. A Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) and/or a Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP) only exist after an initial meeting is completed and are part of the IEP, so the school would already have these on file.
A chronological history of your child, including early interventions by professionals as well as any concerns noted and/or actions taken in pre-school or earlier;
If your child is taking medication or has taken medication to address areas of concern or allergies, you should have a complete list, including dosage amounts, in chronological order available as well.
If you’ve already completed a private, comprehensive evaluation, you should share it with the school team for review in advance of the scheduled meeting. Any other private evaluation, such as psychiatric evaluations, OT reports, or speech and language evaluations should be shared as well in advance of the scheduled meeting. Again, the timeline for “in advance of the meeting” isn’t perfectly clear, so allowing for at least 5 to 10 school calendar days is recommended.

To prepare for a re-evaluation meeting, you should have the following information organized and available:

Updated medical history, including any changes to medication, diagnoses, and/or treatment plans.
If you have completed an updated private evaluation, you should share it with the school team for review in advance of the meeting.
Any additional information from private providers, including tutors and therapists.

Once the school system determines that it will move forward with an evaluation process, the evaluations must address the following questions:

Does the student have an educational disability?
If so, does the student need special education intervention? If yes, then the team will move to development of an IEP. If not, the student may be deemed ineligible for special education service and you may request the development of a 504 Plan.
What accommodations or modifications to the curriculum are necessary?
Are related services necessary?

The initial evaluation process must include:

A social history
A psychoeducational evaluation
A classroom observation
And in NYC, a recent physical evaluation. Other jurisdictions may accept a review of medical records on file at the school.

Members of the initial IEP team must include:

Parent or guardian of the child.
A special education teacher or provider.
A general education teacher or provider.
The school psychologist or an individual who can interpret the instructional implications of the evaluation(s) results.
The student, when appropriate.
A person who is knowledgeable about the availability of district resources and is qualified to supervise special education and knows the standard grade level curriculum. This often is the school psychologist or special education teacher present.

Prior to the post-assessment IEP meeting, be sure that you have received copies of ALL documents that will be shared and discussed at least 5 business days prior to the meeting so that you and your team have time to review them. Make this expectation known, in writing, when you sign the informed consent document. The information derived from the evaluations will be used to determine if your child has an educational disability and, if so, if he/she needs special education intervention to access the curricula. The specifics of the interventions will be determined at an IEP development meeting, which will be scheduled for another time.

It’s important to note that you may bring anyone you would like to the evaluation IEP meeting, but it’s best practice to notify the school team in advance. If you don’t notify the school team in advance and receive their consent, it’s possible you’ll encounter friction on the meeting date, which is stressful for everyone and best avoided. Arriving with unannounced experts sets a negative tone.

It’s advisable to have an expert special education advocate attend with you, and that advocate’s role may vary depending on the situation and desired outcomes. It is also advisable to retain a special education attorney because IEPs are a legal matter, but attorneys usually don’t attend school-level or CSE meetings for strategic reasons. Therefore, it is better for expert advocates to attend instead — which Brad Hoffman and Laurie Gross do for our families in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Maryland, and Washington, DC — and a collaborative effort has led to the greatest success for our students and families.

Once the meeting has occurred and the school team completes their review, they’ll determine if an IEP is justified based on an educational disability. Notably, an IEP process falls under special education, whereas a 504 process falls under general education. An IEP requires specially designed instruction in addition to justified accommodations, whereas a 504 process simply formalizes accommodations in order to access the general education curriculum and level the playing field, typically for students with a medical need, such as ADHD or anxiety.

If an IEP is developed, it is subject to an annual review, which brings the full team back together every 12 months from the date of the implemented IEP. There is also a triennial meeting, which occurs every 3 years. Each meeting has nuanced differences, but the point is to continually review the need for the IEP and to refine the goals and services as appropriate. While the school system messages that IEP meetings only happen once annually, in fact, parents can request an IEP meeting at any time if there’s a particular concern. Because IEP and 504 processes are federally regulated, there are bureaucratic intricacies that must be followed both by the school system and families. Keep in mind that the school system is held to the standard of providing a “free and appropriate” education (FAPE), which is not the same as a platinum-level standard that families and outside professionals may have in mind. Ideally this can be a collaborative, constructive process, but sometimes it becomes contentious, hence the importance of having a trusted advocate and special education attorney on hand.

Written by Brad Hoffman, Board Certified Educational Planner and Learning Specialist, and Laurie Gross, Educational Consultant and Special Educator.

Start Your College Essays Early

February 28, 2024 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

The process of applying to colleges is an arduous one. Standardized tests, campus visits, alumni interviews, and navigating the complexities of Naviance and SCIOR all add up to hours of work, on top of the time students must spend actually doing their schoolwork. The biggest task, however, is writing the many essays universities require for admission – not just the Common App, but the countless supplemental essays and short answers, each with their own twists on “Why us?” Most students, when faced with the yawning chasm of work and the high stakes of completing it “perfectly,” choose to put off this part of the college admissions process until the fall of their senior year, or the summer before it. This is a mistake. Start your college essays early!

While these essays are meant to persuade the admissions committee to accept a student into their school, they are not driven by argument so much as feeling, tone of voice, and narrative. Students trained in the craft of building a sturdy five-paragraph essay or writing a research paper are not well prepared to do this kind of writing, and they won’t learn it formally in school.

The earlier a student starts the process of ideation, composition, and revision, the better off they will be. Because this writing is both uncharted and high stakes, students need time to experiment, possibly fail, and begin again. Often, ideas that don’t work for a Common App essay can be recycled into supplemental essays. The lesson being that the effort of writing, no matter the result, is rarely wasted.

Some students may object to the idea of writing their college essays before the summer of their senior year, banking on the hope that they will do something really interesting in July and August that will provide them with just the right material for an essay. Others will spin their wheels in an effort to find a dramatic tale of hardship overcome or lives radically altered. None of this is necessary to begin writing. As my colleague, Liz Walters says, the best college essays are “vivid, memorable, and a pleasure to read.”

To arrive at such an essay requires work, beginning with students choosing prompts that interest them from the Common App website. Though the portal doesn’t typically become available for rising seniors until early August, the prompts for 2024-2025 are already confirmed and posted. Year to year, the prompts don’t change much, and this year there are no changes at all; the final, open-ended prompt means that if a student has an idea that doesn’t fit into any of the boxes offered, they shouldn’t reject it. Remember that prompts are not assignments; they are springboards meant to help students craft essays that will tell the admissions committee something interesting about this person that isn’t reflected in grades, test scores, recommendation letters, or a CV.

During this initial period, it can be helpful to read examples of past students’ essays, which are usually available on a college or university’s admissions page. They may reveal unconventional approaches to familiar subjects, offer a model of pacing and structure, or show a student that it’s OK to be funny on the page (if that’s their inclination). More importantly, careful reading and analysis will show that these texts did not spring wholly formed from their authors’ minds. Many drafts will be required.

Once a prompt has been selected, students should just start writing. Sometimes a brainstorming session is useful to come up with a list of potential ideas, but don’t let too much time elapse between ideation and composition. It’s best to run with an idea while it’s still fresh. Some students will find they can write through to a completed first draft without help, but others will need prompting after the first or second paragraph. This is where a skillful writing coach can help a student turn a topic into a story, finding ways to dramatize a change that might otherwise seem internal. Always, students should expect to write at least two or three drafts, ideally with some amount of time between rounds to give them a fresh perspective.

Conversely, other students may write a gripping story, but leave out any reflection on what the story means to them or how the event shaped their character or outlook. A common student objection is a fear of sounding “cheesy.” The capacity for self-reflection is a sign of maturity, and simply put, many high school students haven’t had to really examine themselves in a sustained and honest manner. Others may allow that this self-analysis is a necessary ingredient but show a resistance to the idea that they can apply knowledge retrospectively–hinting at things they only knew later.

What is central to all personal college essays is that the author allows themselves to think on the page, thoughts that Columbia professor Phillip Lopate calls “quicksilver and spontaneous” in his book on creative nonfiction To Show and To Tell. “There is nothing more exciting than following a live, candid mind thinking on the page, exploring uncharted waters,” writes Lopate. A great personal essay will exhibit this quality, giving readers insight into not just what the author has done, but how they think about the world and their place in it.

Written by Daniel Penny, an educator and writer with an MFA in creative nonfiction from Columbia University, a BA in English from Grinnell College, and an AA in liberal arts from Bard High School Early College, Brad Hoffman, M.S.Ed., Board Certified Educational Planner, and Faya Hoffman, M.A., Board Certified Educational Planner.

Understanding the Value of Tutoring with My Learning Springboard

February 27, 2024 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

Differentiated Instruction

With expertise differentiating for a wide range of learners, our private tutoring and test preparation work with families is designed to meet the needs of neurotypical and neurodiverse learners. Our faculty includes Learning Specialists, Classroom Teachers, Professors, and Subject-Matter Experts with varied backgrounds and cross-training. Moreover, our private tutoring and test preparation services are designed to give families top priority with our Leadership Team through in-person appointments, phone or video conferences, and e-mail.

From Remediation to Acceleration

From “Back To Basics” instruction to “Accelerated and Enrichment Teaching”, our skillful faculty provides direct instruction in person or remotely depending on a family’s preference and geographic location. All tutoring and test preparation efforts benefit from a team-based approach internally in addition to collaboration with outside professionals at a family’s preference. This internal, team-based approach leverages our deep knowledge of curriculum and instructional design, specialized instruction, and educational psychology to consistently create successful outcomes. And all work provides a vehicle for the authentic development of executive function skills provided the intention is set with explicit instruction.

To address skill gaps and/or accelerate instruction, private tutoring is the most effective solution. Meeting once weekly or twice weekly is most typical. High-dosage tutoring is generally defined as intensive 1:1 tutoring at least 3x per week, or for about 50 hours over a semester.

For students with reading and writing challenges needing Orton-Gillingham, Wilson, or PAF curricula in addition to other scaffolded instruction in math and other subject areas, we have this expertise. And for our students who don’t necessarily need this specific instruction, they benefit from our specialized training, too.

Benefits of Tutoring with My Learning Springboard

Direct partnering with Brad Hoffman and Faya Hoffman, the only Board Certified Educational Planners in NYC at the K-12 Level (located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan), and both of whom are Learning Specialists with expertise in Curriculum and Instructional Design.

Notably, Board Certification through AICEP is the highest level of credentialing in the Educational Consulting space. It requires a significant commitment to continuing education and professional development, demonstrated educational leadership, and regular school visits and engagement with school professionals. Re-certification occurs every 5 years, and Brad and Faya were just re-certified this month.

Moreover, Brad is a Literacy Specialist and Elementary Math and Science Specialist; Faya is a Literacy Specialist. In partnership with our faculty, we create a teaching team for each family, and we leverage our deep knowledge of various school settings (including mainstream, specialized, and therapeutic) and curricula in order to offer a unique perspective for strategic planning purposes.

Developing, implementing, and/or managing targeted plans for remediation, acceleration, and test preparation as well as executive function coaching.

Brad and Faya’s collaboration and instructional coaching with faculty members for all private tutoring and test preparation programs.

Unlimited availability for parents, guardians, or caregivers with Brad and Faya, during normal business hours, regarding instructional matters related to tutoring or test preparation programs (scheduling for calls and meetings is required).

Access for families to our integrated services and instruction with our highly-credentialed, skillful, and multidisciplinary faculty in order to meet the diverse needs of each student or siblings within a family.

Teacher access to our Virtual Library of professional resources and curated curricula material.

Collaboration with parents, school faculty, and related service providers per a family’s preference.

Flexibility with in-person or remote instruction as well as teacher choice for each family.

All tutoring and test preparation programs intentionally integrate executive function skill building.

Support with referrals to related service professionals, including psychologists, psychiatrists, speech therapists, OTs, etc.

Review of school report cards and progress reports as they become available quarterly or semesterly for strategic planning purposes.

Initial support with accommodations approval processes and planning (more complex planning efforts and appeals processes require separate, ad hoc consultation).

20% reduction on ad hoc consultation (1-10 hours) while engaged in tutoring and test preparation services, which may be related to planning for parent-teacher conferences, navigating interactions and requests with school administration or classroom teachers, crisis management (e.g. disciplinary action, medical leaves), and strategizing for upcoming processes, such as school transitions or college planning.

Privacy, discretion and confidentiality within our boutique, multidisciplinary educational consulting firm.

Scheduling A Planning Meeting

Whatever your need or wonder may be, please don’t hesitate to contact us. An initial planning meeting is usually the best way to get started. These meetings can be 30, 45, or 60 minutes by Zoom, by phone, or in person per a family’s preference. A single planning meeting allows us to talk more substantively about your family’s specific needs, priorities, and goals so that we can determine possible next steps. We’re committed to developing unique solutions for unique learners!

We look forward to hearing from you!

Warm regards,
Brad Hoffman and Faya Hoffman,
Co-Founders and Learning Concierges, My Learning Springboard

Math Specialists

January 24, 2024

At My Learning Springboard, our Math Specialists and Learning Specialists support students of all ages from preschool through high school and beyond. We focus on developing conceptual understanding, logical reasoning, and problem solving strategies along with strong number sense, mental math skills, and mathematical reasonableness. Moreover, we tailor instruction to the meet the needs of all types of learners, including students with learning challenges, such as ADHD or dyscalculia, and/or anxiety related to math performance.

We help students achieve success by taking an individual’s learning profile into careful consideration in order to differentiate our instructional approach while also choosing materials that complement the existing school program. For younger learners, we typically find success by first introducing concepts concretely, then progressing to pictorial representations, and finally moving into the abstract representation of math problems. We may employ a similar sequence for older learners if they encounter conceptual challenges in more advanced math.

Our Math Specialists often conduct comprehensive math diagnostic assessments at the beginning of our work together in order to fully assess a student’s performance level. We use these types of diagnostic tools when addressing both remediation and acceleration in order to develop an appropriate and targeted instructional plan. Our approach to diagnostic work is differentiated depending on the particular circumstance and purpose.

Our diagnostic tools, preK through 12, are informed by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Principles and Standards, Common Core State Standards, and NYS Next Generation Learning Standards; and we utilize materials and research from known math experts, including Kathy Richardson, Marilyn Burns, and Dr. John A. Van de Walle. Our math work is also informed by the CTP content standards from the Educational Records Bureau (ERB) and IB Standards, as appropriate, for students at schools making use of these assessment tools and/or curricula.

Popular Math Programs

Remediation or Acceleration: preK-5

Counting and Cardinality
Basic Facts and Computation (math fluency), including addition, subtraction, multiplication and division
Number Operations and Algebraic Thinking, including fractions and long division
Measurement and Data (representation and analysis), including graphing
Geometry
Problem Solving and Reasoning

Standards for Mathematical Practice

Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
Model with mathematics.
Use appropriate tools strategically.
Attend to precision.
Look for and make use of structure.
Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.

$Math Center Manipulatives$

We also help families to create math centers in their homes. We select age-appropriate math manipulatives and resources that support classroom and tutoring instruction. We also teach parents and/or caregivers how to use these resources more comfortably. Since students are used to accessing these materials in their classrooms, it makes sense to have them available at home when completing homework or exploring mathematical ideas. Materials are divided by primary grades (K-2) and intermediate grades (3-5), and these materials may benefit older learners as well. Having a complete math center in your home is a strategic investment in your child’s math education.

Please contact our office for more information.

What is A Holistic Review For College Admissions?

December 3, 2023 Brad Hoffman

Grappling With College Admissions: Test-Optional Policies And Holistic Reviews

We’re observing that many families are feeling overwhelmed and/or confused by the state of college admissions (e.g. test-optional policies, holistic reviews) and what they should be doing. We’re here to help you make sense of it.

If we had to boil it down to one sentence, we’d say: Do everything within your control from grades 9 to 12 – including standardized test preparation – and cast a wide enough net (12-15 applications).

But unpacking what a holistic review means for your student cannot properly be boiled down to one sentence, and it keeps changing, so here’s quite a lot of information that’s important to carefully consider and digest. Go make an espresso or a cup of tea and settle in!

Common App Research Brief: Application Trends Through November 1, 2023

To better understand the state of college applications, here’s some interesting data recently published by Common App in this research brief dated November 15, 2023. It reveals application trends through November 1, 2023 benchmarked against pre-pandemic norms from the 2019-20 admissions cycle. NOTE: the UC system is NOT part of Common App.

Key Findings:

65% increase in total application volume (3,353,516) to 834 institutions that have been part of the Common App membership since 2019-20 (last application season not affected by Covid).
41% increase in distinct first-year applicants (836,639) planning to enroll for the 2024-25 academic year.
About 68% of domestic applicants (565,045) live in ZIP codes with family incomes above the national median; students early to the application cycle are often targeting Early Decision and Early Action programs.
34% (421,161) of applicants submitted standardized test scores. However, Common App member institutions requiring standardized testing is just 4% in comparison to 55% in 2019-20.
Applications to public members grew more than those to private members since 2019-20 (82% vs. 47%). Growth in applications since 2019-20 was slowest for those most selective institutions (admit rates below 25%) and highest for more selective institutions (admit rates between 50% and 74%).

Demographic Trends:

67% increase for applicants identifying as an underrepresented minority race/ethnicity (URM) in comparison to the 2019-20 season, driven largely by an 86% increase for applicants identifying as American Indian or Alaska Native, and a 70% increase for applicants identifying as Black or African American.
30% increase in applications by non-URM students
67% increase for first-generation applicants, about twice the rate of continuing-generation applicants over the same period.
Increase in applicants from lower-income ZIP codes (52%) was substantially greater than by their peers from higher-income areas (34%).
Domestically, the ten highest volume states for first-year applicants include: New York (#1 with 50% growth since 2019-20), Florida, Texas, California, Illinois, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Carolina, and Virginia.
Domestically, growth in applicants is roughly equal across urbanicity levels, though growth was by far the fastest in the Southwestern regions (109%). Nebraska, Texas, South Carolina, Alabama, and North Dakota were the fastest growing states.
International applicants increased by more than twice the rate of domestic applicants since the 2019-20 admissions cycle (87% vs. 38%). This growth is fastest among applicants with citizenship in Ghana (1,066%), Bangladesh (514%), Nepal (470%), Ethiopia (369%, and Nigeria (347%).

What does it take to be a “competitive” applicant?

From our perspective, competitive applicants should NOT be giving up any ground. We urge all parents to be more skeptical about the messages they may be hearing from well-intended school faculty, admissions representatives, and the national media about holistic reviews and admissions criteria. The hard truth is that college admissions criteria are more subjective than ever, and families ought to apply control where they can; the opportunities to shine aren’t even across all colleges, and the goal is to keep as many doors open as possible.

When high school seniors ultimately submit applications for college, they have the following ways to differentiate themselves from their peers:

Academic achievement via grades, class ranking, and GPA
Academic achievement via standardized testing, including ACT, SAT, APs, and IBs
Extracurricular activities, including clubs, sports, and volunteer work
Independent study and/or college coursework
Awards and accolades
Internship or part-time job
Art or music portfolio
Auditions
Sports recruitment
Demonstrated interest of a particular college(s) through ongoing engagement, summer programming, and early application processes
Successful interviewing with admissions officers, alumni, and/or student representatives

For good reason, institutions are working to ensure they receive more diverse applicants – broadly defined – which has necessitated the disruption of standardized testing as a barrier to entry, but students are now subject to holistic review relative to the context of their circumstances. Not all of the items above are attainable or manageable for every student, especially with the demands of a rigorous and selective high school program, so families have to realistically assess what they’ll be able to bring to the table when it comes time for college admissions.

What is an “Individualized Holistic Review” for admissions?

The College Board published a 28-page document titled “Understanding Holistic Review in Higher Education Admissions”. Optimally, three common characteristics are included:

Mission alignment, which is focused on advancing the institution’s core educational goals through the admissions process.
A two-part inquiry for assessing applicants, which considers: a) their likely ability to succeed and thrive at a given institution, AND b) their ability to enhance the educational experience of their peers in and out of the classroom.
Consideration of multiple, often intersecting, factors – academic, nonacademic, and contextual – that, in combination, uniquely define and reflect accomplishments and potential contributions of each applicant in light of their background and circumstances.

Here’s an example of this language in practice at Stanford.

Stanford: Holistic Admission

At Stanford, we practice holistic admission. This means that each piece in your application is reviewed as part of an integrated and comprehensive whole.

One piece tells us about your background and life experiences, another about your school and your academic achievement. We learn from others about your character and intellectual contributions. In your essays, we learn about your ideas and interests, and what is meaningful to you.

Each year (and in conformance with the law) we aim to enroll a class of diverse backgrounds and experiences, talents, academic interests, and ways of viewing the world.

In a holistic review, we seek to understand how you, as a whole person, would grow, contribute and thrive at Stanford, and how Stanford would, in turn, be changed by you.

Context

Just as no two Stanford students are the same, each applicant to Stanford is unique. This means that as we review each application, we pay careful attention to unique circumstances. We take into account your background, educational pathway, and work and family responsibilities. By focusing on your achievements in context, we evaluate how you have excelled in your school environment and how you have taken advantage of what is available to you in your school and community.

Considering Your Own Circumstances

Therefore, if students are undergoing a holistic review during the application process, families must logically consider their own circumstances:

At which school is your child enrolled? Which type of school is it (e.g. mainstream, specialized, therapeutic)? Private? Public?
Which colleges and majors are you most interested in?
Which class levels has your child opted into (e.g honors, advanced, regular)? Is AP testing available to showcase subject-matter knowledge?
Can your student manage standardized testing based on their learning profile?
In which ZIP code does your family reside?
Who is your child’s direct peer competition?
What other evidence might differentiate your child (academic and nonacademic)?

To Test or Not To Test?

Depending on your answers to these questions, we would argue that opting out of standardized testing isn’t a good strategy for everyone as part of a holistic review. And proceeding without standardized testing may create friction following an acceptance with regards to accessing certain majors or avoiding certain courses, particularly math. Anecdotally, almost all of our students continue to apply with standardized test scores, and this hasn’t changed since the 2019-20 academic year. As a result, we continue to experience tremendous success with college admissions, and our students continue to secure multiple acceptances to desired schools. Exceeding expectations has always mattered, and it still does.

Especially for families at selective private and public schools, nothing about a holistic review and the current admissions landscape makes things any easier than they were before the pandemic started. Though many school administrators, college counselors, advisors, and college admissions representatives may appear to emphasize and rally around eased admissions criteria with regard to test-optional policies, we worry tremendously that many families are misunderstanding and giving up considerable control in a high stakes process.

School faculty can’t roll out different messages for different students. There has to be a single message (which, ironically, runs counter to the notion of differentiation and individualization). So if an auditorium full of parents from diverse backgrounds are all brought together for a level setting conversation about college admissions and holistic review, it’s not surprising that a school would message that standardized testing isn’t that important anymore. Doing so diminishes short-term stress and frustration among their constituents while aligning with the heavy marketing push from colleges; and college representatives are keen to drive up application numbers and boast more selective acceptance rates.

In order to sufficiently rack up experiences and accomplishments to shine in a climate of “holistic review”, students need help making the most of their entire high school experience both in and out of school. Therefore, this planning should really start in late 8th grade or the beginning of 9th grade in order to avoid a scramble; it’s stressful enough with a solid and actively managed plan in place! In this article, we backmap this planning to 7th grade.

For standardized test preparation, we currently lean heavily in favor of the ACT while monitoring seriously big changes with the newly established digital-only SAT set to roll out in March 2024. We recommend formalizing test preparation with diagnostic work as early as January of 10th grade; and if you’ve passed that point already for your 11th grader, it’s not too late. We have always valued standardized test preparation as a vehicle for auditing prerequisite skills and bolstering college readiness, which is proving more important than ever with diminished academic performance and reported grade inflation as a result of continuous disruptions over the past several years. Notably, the national average for the ACT has plummeted to a 30-year low of 19.5.

Take Action And Make A Plan

Please contact us with your questions and wonders so that we can have a more cogent discussion by phone or by Zoom. We urge each family to put on blinders to those around them and focus discussions on your needs and goals, based on your particular circumstances, with an eye towards your student’s holistic review and application process.

By Brad Hoffman, M.S.Ed. and Board Certified Educational Planner, and Faya Hoffman, M.A. and Board Certified Educational Planner