Some highlights:
“His school offers yearlong Saturday SAT preparation sessions to 20 juniors”
“Mr. O’Hara said he was glad that the Department of Education was setting an expectation that students should apply to college. But he hoped that the city would give schools more money to help prepare students.”
“The Education Department said that this year it had offered training for teachers at the 92 schools on the content of the new SAT and that in future years it might provide more test preparation resources.”
“students who took that exam in October received a personalized Khan Academy account along with their scores. Neither the College Board nor the city could say how many students in the city had used their accounts.”
“College Board was really looking to other efforts — such as changes to the SAT this year that are intended to make it more closely reflect what students learn in school, as well as the new free preparation materials — to try to narrow the achievement gap.”
“The school pays $250 per student for (professional test prep), coming from its Title I grant.”
So the Department of Education is using tax payer money for --gasp – paid test prep?
Free Khan Academy energy points weren’t working?
And are the paid adult tutors who are giving this prep allowed to take the SAT? Or would that be a commercial, non-educational use?
The truth is that if you want results, you need qualified teachers. If you want qualified teachers, you have to pay them what they are worth. A society that does not recognize the value of teachers will pay the price one way or the other down the line.