<p>I found a book by David T. Conley through my research at CollegeBoard. You see, CollegeBoard is creating a new program to try to prepare high school students for college. In other words, public schools are not preparing their students for college! Everything that is explained in this book helps to explain why many homeschoolers are prepared. I think homeschoolers who are collegebound SHOULD READ THIS BOOK! I'll quote later.</p>
<p>The inside flap on the book states:
Although more and more students have the test scores and transcripts to get into college, far too many are struggling once they get there. These students are surprised to find that collge coursework demands so much more of them than high school. For the first time, they are asked to think deeply, write extensively, document assertions, solve nonroutine problems, apply concepts, and accept unvarnished critiques of their work. College Knowledge confronts this problem by looking at the disconnect between what high schools do and what colleges expect and proposes a solution by identifying what students need to know and be able to do in order to succeed.</p>
<p>This book is based on an extensive three-year project sponsored by the Association of American Universities in partnership with The Pew Charitable Trusts. </p>
<p>They have come up with Standards for Success which cover the major subject areas of English, mathematics, natural sciences, second languages, and the arts. </p>
<p>This book clearly shows the limitations of the current system of college preparation. College Knowledge is filled with ideas that can be implemented by high school teachers and administrators to improve their college prep programs.</p>
<p>My whole point, homeschoolers, is that this book offers a great curriculum to follow. It allows you to move away from the typical high school curriculum and at the same time you know that you are still preparing for college. Why couldn't I have found this book earlier? My student is a senior!</p>
<p>This sounds like a book I would enjoy reading. I'll have to try to control myself though -- I have huge stacks of books I told myself I would read once both my kids were in college. And I keep buying more ... My husband and I keep buying book shelves and filling them up. Neither one of us wants to give up our preciouses.</p>
<p>I joke that I should now open up a book shop. Only I wouldn't want to sell any of the books. I would just want to sit around all day and read them.</p>
<p>I am not surprised at the conclusions. I didn't like many high school texts at all. We used college texts except for foreign language (where the books had no obvious level) and precalculus math (where I did lots of searching around to find what I liked).</p>
<p>I was a fan of TWTM myself, although I tweaked it quite a bit.</p>
<p>Okay, I'm stupid. What is TWTM?</p>
<p>How did you get your daughter to do the college texts? Was there a trick or was she just open to it?</p>
<p>DianeR,</p>
<p>Same here re college texts instead of high school. What ended up being your favorites for precalculus?</p>
<p>TWTM -- The Well-Trained Mind, a very popular book for classical homeschoolers. You can read about it at <a href="http://www.welltrainedmind.com%5B/url%5D">www.welltrainedmind.com</a>. </p>
<p>My daughter was open to the college texts. She didn't like it in public school in part because she felt like everything was dumbed down. She always wanted to be challenged and actually found the college-level stuff to be far more interesting. I did involve her in the choice of texts whenever I could. We also listened to a lot of the college-level Teaching Company courses. She loved listening to the different college professors lecture. History, for instance, is so much more interesting when you hear that some historians think this and others think that. Or at least we found it so ... I suppose there are others whom this would bore silly. </p>
<p>For precalculus, we used Sullivan's Precalculus (Prentice Hall). I was able to buy a set of minilectures on CD ROM for use with the book. I don't know if these are available anymore. The Prentice Hall web site doesn't make it easy to find what all they have.</p>
<p>My daughter really found that seeing someone -- other than me LOL -- explain math concepts and work problems helped her learn. I think we tried three different algebra programs until one finally clicked, Videotext. I had hoped that the VT geometry/trig program would come out and we could use it but they've only gotten around to releasing modules of it this year. I thought about using Chalkdust but didn't come across anyone at the time that liked that level of it.</p>
<p>Since we did precal, I ran across a company that offers cheaper multimedia courses, <a href="http://www.thinkwell.com%5B/url%5D">www.thinkwell.com</a>. If I had to choose today I might give them a try.</p>
<p>Math seems to be rather idiosyncratic though. You know how people either swear by or at Saxon? For everybody who likes, say, Jacobs Geometry (which we did), there is someone who didn't. You pretty much need to preface it, "If you liked X, then ..."</p>
<p>Foreign language seems to be another one of those things. All these years of listening to people say they want "whole to parts" or "parts to whole" instruction and I've yet to quite figure out what they are talking about, much less my preference.</p>
<p>Yes, I'd like to know too. I had trouble finding the right books. I didn't like the religious ones, nor the public school ones, and my daughter often balked at the college ones. How do you get around it?</p>
<p>Where do you get College Level Teaching Company courses? I've never heard of that.</p>
<p>I have looked at TWTM and wasn't sure if it was the right way to go. Now, with this College Knowledge Standards for Success and TWTM, I might finally get on a better track.</p>
<p>Problem with D#1 - a history of public schooling and never fully accepting status as a homeschooler. Won't be a problem with D#2.</p>
<p>Teaching Company is at <a href="http://www.teach12.com%5B/url%5D">www.teach12.com</a>. They have some high school level courses, too, but I never tried them. A number of homeschoolers do use them. There is a Yahoo group called Teaching<em>company</em>fans -- if you are interested in a particular course, you will probably find several people who have tried it out. There are a number of us addicts out there.</p>
<p>These are not sufficient by themselves to be considered entire courses. But you can use them with other resources, each other, supplemental writing assignments, or whatever and come up with something. We ended up with several courses where we didn't have a regular text but just combinations like this. For instance, Greek and Roman History involved the TC Greek and Roman history courses, plus Herodotus, Thucydides, Plutarch, and some Livy. </p>
<p>Always buy on sale. The savings are substantial.</p>
<p>Many libraries have some of these. So you can check them out. The company also has a very liberal return policy. If you don't like something, you just return it, no problem.</p>
<p>The courses are like watching a good college professor. They aren't documentaries.</p>
<p>About choosing texts -- I did try to do whatever research I could. There are high school homeschooling boards where people tell you want they used. I even had people put me in contact with their friends or relatives who were professors in particular subjects. One time I emailed a TC professor I really liked and asked him for his recommendation of a text. I would look in the library and regular and college bookstores (the latter was easier because we were visiting colleges for my son). If it was an AP course, I could google and see what was popular or check out the reviews at the AP Central part of the College Board web site. I checked colleges and what texts were popular with them (again google). I researched on Amazon, where I could read reviews and sometimes see samples. Publishers' web sites sometimes have samples as well. I think I was always looking around for quite awhile during the previous school year trying to find what I would like to use the next year. So it wasn't like I needed something immediately so I grabbed the first book I could find.</p>
<p>Wow, A BIG THANKS</p>
<p>My daugther used one of the Teaching Company college level courses too. It was rather late in her homeschool career, or she might have taken more from them. I followed the course along with her and found it very well organized and thorough.</p>