Greetings!

How is the New Year going? Did you make any resolutions?  I generally don’t make them because I know that life happens and I cannot keep them. I do however try to spend some time taking stock of the old year and preparing for the new.

This, of course, doesn’t always work well with the school schedule since we are on a different calendar. The New Year begins in September and ends in the next year in May or June. So when do you start thinking about next year? Those of us who are a little OCD about time start when the first spring weather arrives in late February or early March. We begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel for this year and fantasize about what we can do to catch up or enrich our children’s experience over the summer. We start looking through catalogs for next year’s curriculum and dreaming about how we can make things more perfect next year. But maybe that is just me.

If you have set some new priorities for the rest of this academic year what are they? I would love to hear from you. I am looking at some very big changes in the next year. The one of I know is coming is my oldest child’s graduation from high school. The other big change is still out there in the ether and I won’t go into it until I know for sure what is going to happen. But as to the first, anyone else about to graduate a child or recently gone through it? Let’s hear from you!

REMINDER!

It’s January! Have you filed your FAFSA?

If you have a senior you need to do it now. You don’t need your 2014 tax return, you just need a good estimate based on last year’s return. (What?! You don’t have last year’s return handy? There is an IRS retrieval Tool at the FAFSA website.)

Get started! The earlier you do it the more you typically receive. Most colleges use the FAFSA to start the financial aid process.

(Be aware-parents can be biological or adoptive; HOWEVER, foster parents and grandparents may not qualify as the child’s parents for the FAFSA. Contact the FAFSA folks or the college Financial Aid office for guidance for this.

Another resource is the Educational Opportunity Center. The EOC has a staff of professional counselors. Their stated purpose is,  “… to assist you in identifying your job interests and skill levels…help you develop goals for short/long term training, employment and education.”

(I have had some interaction with these folks and I hope to have an interview in the blog shortly.)

You can make an appointment at 757-683-2312.

They are located at:

Circle East building

861 Glenrock Road, Suite 135

Norfolk, VA 23502

In the News

Recently in the Virginia Pilot:

Democrats, GOP support changes to SOL exams

The folks in Richmond want to adjust the system. I don’t generally have a problem with the idea of tweaking things to make them work better; in fact, it is nice to see politicians taking a look at things and giving thought on how to make things better and not just create a program and let it run forever without any review.

However, the SOLs have been tweaked quite a bit. My question is: When are the politicians going to do what needs to be done to make the schools better? The test is not the problem. The test only shows that there is a problem in the schools. The Standard of Learning Innovation Committee has made several suggestions, such as letting students who fail retake the test quickly. In my opinion this invites cheating and abuse of the system. I have not heard them suggest things like improving teacher training, raising requirements for teachers or increasing remediation in school districts that need it. That is what is needed. Let’s see if anyone on this board will go there.

In the Wall Street Journal, January 17:

Skills Gap Found in College Students

Based on the results of the Collegiate Learning Assessment Plus, four out of ten college graduates leave school without important skills that employers want like critical thinking, problem solving and communication. According to the authors of the study, the colleges are not the biggest reason for the lack of skills. Although, according to the co-author of the report Richard Arum, colleges are focusing more on the social aspects of their school, the real problem is that “… students are starting at such a low point that they may still not be proficient at the point of graduation.” The article written by Douglas Belkin also states that “…nine out of ten employers judge recent college graduates as poorly prepared for the work force.”

Are these the kids coming out of the public school system? “Starting at such a low point?” Interesting. It is a little funny isn’t it that the homeschooling community must demonstrate competence every year?

I hope to hear from you all, and please spread the word about the blog. I will be trying to “market” it a little more widely this year. Maybe that is my resolution.

T