Jon Boeckenstedt is as fearless as he is smart as he is dedicated to Doing The Right Thing as a leader in the realm of college enrollment management. He’s one of these people that everyone in our field looks to first with questions that require evidence-based answers, and over the better part of the last decade, his voice has emerged as one of the strongest and clearest on the biggest questions related to the use of standardized tests in admissions.

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The Mastery Transcript Consortium (MTC) is a group of over 150 private schools that have coalesced around an idea that our current model of grading students is not only outdated, but harmful to their development. Scott Looney is the Head of School at the Hawken School in Cleveland, Ohio, and is the driving force behind the Mastery Transcript, a brand-new way to consider how we assess student achievements in high school.  Continue reading

 

Akil Bello is a friend of mine who is also one of these odd sorts who concerns himself in life with all things Standardized Test. Following up from Episode 4 where I pledge to take the SAT, I finally sit down to register to do it, which in itself can take up to an hour. Naturally, I thought this would make for gripping radio. We document this epic experience of simply registering for the exam and attempt to read the minds – and fine print rivaling the iTunes terms of service – of the College Boarders who’ve put this experience together.

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denise head shot far 2012

Dr. Denise Pope is a professor of education at Stanford and a founder of “Challenge Success,” an organization that “partners with schools and families to provide kids with the academic, social, and emotional skills needed to succeed now and in the future.” She’s out to reduce stress among teenagers through a variety of methods including a reduction in homework and more sleep. These were two of my favorite concepts when I was in high school, but for some strange reason even the students are pushing back.

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The weirdness created by a lack of obvious, consistent formula determining who gets into selective colleges makes it feel super secretive. Stephanie Shyu and her colleagues at AdmitSee think they’ve come up with a tool that can help cut through some of the static, and it’s rankling some folks in the college counseling world. Continue reading

Adam Ingersoll

Tests suck and they suck real bad. I know because I cried the day I got my SAT scores in the mail. BUT- we need them in our lives in the college admissions world…or do we? Adam Ingersoll, is the co-founder of the west coast’s leading test prep company, Compass Education Group, and he helps us think about the value of these tests, their present and future, and whether grownups like me should take the new SAT. And then cry about it for old time’s sake. Continue reading