College Board deals "devastating blow to critics of the national education standards"

"The "architect" of the recent changes to the SAT's is also known as the "Architect" of Common Core and critics feel that the recently announced changes will pave the way for forcing local school districts to change their curriculum after all."

The expected announcement by David Coleman that The College Board will align the SAT with the Common Core Standards represents a strong endorsement of national college and career-ready standards and severely undermines the arguments of Common Core detractors.

"It's a roundabout way to put pressure on states that opted out of Common Core," said Whitney Neal, director of Grassroots at Freedom Works. "If you are legislator from Virginia let's say, this will put pressure on you obtain material to make your district more appealing especially to homebuyers. SAT 

averages are often included in realtor information and high school success rate is always a selling point."

Both the SAT and ACT are now aligned with the Common Core Standards:  "Officials for ACT, the College Board's main competition for standardized testing, said Coleman's group is simply playing catch-up to improvements they had made a long time ago.

"Our reaction is that most of their changes validate our approach," Paul Weeks, vice president of Customer Engineering for ACT. They are getting in line with a path we have been down for a while."

This article is reprinted from Mel Riddile's blogpost , "The Principal Difference,"  Mel is the Associate Director for High School Services for NASSP.  You can (and should!) follow him on Twitter @PrincipalDiff .  His blog is located here http://nasspblogs.org/principaldifference/mel-bio/  and is always fresh with the latest in the world of school leadership.  Mel is also the 2006 National High School Principal of  the Year. 

What do you think about the new SAT Changes?  Please let us know and let us share your thoughts with your colleagues!  Tweet to @ MarkWilsonGA,
and use #NewSAT to join the conversation  

Ajit Narayanan: A word game to communicate in any language

Ajit Narayanan: A word game to communicate in any language

Helps Autistic Children Understand the Abstract

While working with kids who have trouble speaking, Ajit Narayanan sketched out a way to think about language in pictures, to relate words and concepts in "maps." The idea now powers an app that helps nonverbal people communicate, and the big idea behind it, a language concept called FreeSpeech, has exciting potential.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and much more. Find closed captions and translated subtitles in many languages at http://www.ted.com/translate 

Ajit Narayanan is the inventor of Avaz, an affordable, tablet-based communication device for people who are speech-impaired.

Why you should listen

Are You A Good Leader? 

Ask Yourself, and Say "Yes"   

A survey of almost 3,000 workers undertaken by The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD; UK) last year showed that most employees favour a common-sense style of leadership to engender and create a climate of trust.

When it comes to leadership attributes, competency was considered the most important. Being a good communicator was next, with trustworthiness rated as the third most important attribute.

A good leader has the self-confidence to embody all these attributes. However, not every leader is naturally confident - some are very shy and have had to work hard to develop their self-confidence and succeed.

What happens when leaders lack confidence?

Commonly, when leaders lack confidence they tend to mask their weaknesses with bravado and this is when problems occur as others perceive these characteristics as arrogance. Such leaders mistakenly think they can't show any vulnerability because they'll look weak so instead create a persona they think looks better. However, there is a danger that this type of leader comes across as a 'know it all', they tend to micro manage people and fail to listen to others because only they know what needs to be done. They are unpopular with their management team and staff but their frail egos can't cope with being challenged in any way. Dictatorial leaders like this will create poor working environments - founded on fear. People don't feel valued and just do as they are told to avoid rocking the boat. This kind of culture lacks innovation and stifles creativity as employees are too scared to come up with new ideas or challenge the status quo.

Confident leaders have a different way of thinking; they celebrate their own achievements in a humble manner. They also accept their strengths and weaknesses in a constructive and balanced way and they may look at their lack of experience as something they haven't developed yet. They listen to what others have to say and surround themselves with colleagues who will challenge and support them. Richard Branson is a classic example of a leader who surrounds himself with experts. He might be the face of Virgin but he empowers his management team to run the business.

So how can leaders develop self-confidence?

Develop greater self-awareness - By developing self-awareness leaders can understand their strengths and weaknesses in a balanced way. Acknowledging weaknesses or areas of development in a constructive manner helps people to improve them and to see them as challenges rather than obstacles. Hiring an executive coach may help to do this within a safe, but challenging environment.

Manage inner dialogue - Often people are overly critical of themselves with the intention of improving and motivating themselves to be better. Unfortunately this sometimes erodes all confidence. It is important that when people experience negative self-talk, they 

recognise it as such, stop it and become more constructive. For example, a person may make a mistake, and berate themselves for being stupid. Clearly, such negative self-talk won't help. Instead, they must take responsibility for the mistake, and turn the situation on its head so it is more positive. They could think for example, "I was careless in this situation and in future I will pay more attention and learn from this". In essence, people should be kinder to themselves.

Don't be afraid to fail - Many entrepreneurs have failed during their working lives and gone on to achieve great things. Richard Branson started almost a hundred companies in his career many of which failed, however, people only remember his successful companies. Fear of failure often stops people from doing things. One way people can tackle this head on is by choosing to do one thing each month that they fear and tackling it, such as making a presentation to a group of people, or attending a networking event alone.

Ask for feedback - Requesting feedback shows a huge amount of courage but it can really help people see their blind spots. When receiving feedback, it's important to be open and not defensive about it.

Find a mentor- A mentor can often provide leaders with guidance, unbiased support and challenge. The key is to find someone who is balanced and provides constructive feedback. A leader may wish to choose a mentor who knows them sufficiently to identify their key strengths, this will then enable the leader to apply those key strengths in their day to day work. 

This is an excerpt from an article that can be read in entirety here:  http://www.bmmagazine.co.uk/in-business/advice/23960/self-confidence-vital-ingredient-great-leadership/   The author is Marielena Sabatier, CEO of "Inspiring Potential" and was published on March 4, 2014 in Business Matters.  

Rule Ten:  Be The Person You Want Your Students To Be

Be the person you want your students to become. Or as Gandhi once said, "Be the change you want to see in the world." Our best teachers believe that being a model for their students is one of the pillars of providing a successful education. Says Jane Klir Viau, who teaches AP Statistics to inner-city students in New York: "In order to expect commitment from my students, I must first demonstrate my own commitment to each of them." Rafe Esquith puts an even sharper point on it: "Our main mission in my class is to be nice and to work hard. That means I have to be the nicest and hardest-working person the students have ever met."

This is an excerpt from a blog written by Katrina Fried.  It outlines the "Twelve Rules of Classroom Heroes."  We will share the rules with you weekly in Principal Matters!  If you can't wait to see them over time, you can read the article in its entirety here:  http://www.weareteachers.com/community/blogs/weareteachersblog/blog-wat/2013/10/30/12-rules-for-classroom-heroes    It's inspired from her best-selling book, American Teachers:  Heroes in the Classroom, available at Amazon and at your favorite book-seller.

New SAT To Leave Obscure Vocabulary Words Behind

T he following was printed in the Cincinatti Enquirer on March 8, 2014 and was authored by Cliff Peale.  We share an excerpt and encourage you to read it its entirety at this link:  http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2014/03/08/new-sat-test-will-eliminate-obscure-vocabulary/6221637/ 

Instead of obscure vocabulary words, the new SAT test starting in 2016 will concentrate on words that are relevant, such as 'synthesis' and 'empirical.' That's just one of the big changes.

Generations of students have walked out of the SAT college entrance exam in frustration, shaking their heads at the vocabulary words they never used before - and probably would never use again.

That's about to change. Starting in spring 2016, the college-admission test taken this year by nearly 1.7 million students will focus on what SAT officials call relevant words, like "synthesis" or "empirical." And the writing test will become optional with a separate score, meaning the return of the 1,600-point scale.

Those are two of several fundamental changes coming to the SAT unveiled last week by the College Board, the company that administers the test.

It hopes the changes will unravel the mystery and adapt to students and families who often complain that the tests don't really predict college success and favor wealthier students who can afford prep classes.

"We try to take a special look at students who may be from first-generation families and have good grades and low test scores," said Aaron Meis, dean of admission at Xavier University, where about half of students have taken the SAT and 80 percent have taken the ACT.

Meis said Xavier did not consider the SAT writing test for admission, relying instead on its own application essay.

 "It does seem that (the College Board is) doing something to try to level the playing field," he said.

Vocabulary words have been a flashpoint for years.

"You'd almost have to be prepping for the spelling bee to know some of these words," said Dan Bisig, who runs College & Beyond Test Prep in Florence. "There's no doubt that getting away from complicated vocabulary words make sense."

World Book Night US, April 23, 2014

Time to read.  Not just you, everyone.  This month's professional reading suggestion is to find a book for World Book Night, US.  On April 23, 2014, the call is out for everyone to "spread the love of reading, person to person."

Each year, 30- 35 books are chosen by an independent panel of librarians and booksellers. The authors of the books waive their royalties and the publishers agree to pay the costs of producing the specially-printed World Book Night U.S. editions. Bookstores and libraries sign up to be community host locations for the volunteer book givers. 

After the book titles are announced, members of the public apply to personally hand out 20 copies of a particular title in their community. World Book Night U.S. vets the applications, and the givers are chosen based on their ability to reach light and non-readers. The selected givers choose a local participating bookstore or library from which to pick up the 20 copies of their book, and World Book Night U.S. delivers the books to these host locations.

Givers pick up their books in the week before World Book Night. On April 23rd, they give their books to those who don't regularly read and/or people who don't normally have access to printed books, for reasons of means or geography.   

Find out more at this link:  http://www.us.worldbooknight.org/about-us/what-we-do/how-it-works 

On This Date...  

March 11, 1779

Sometimes,  Congress gets it right.

They did so on this date back in 1779.  It was then that Congress established the Army Corps of Engineers, a full decade before the U.S. Constitution went into effect.  To say that it was forward thinking is an understatement.

The initial charge of the Corps of Engineers was critical to the effort to secure independence from the British crown.  Then, the engineers designed and built structures to support the Continental Army and its partners.  They developed environmental and structural facilities to house and protect the Patriot soldiers.

The Army Corps of Engineers has continued to develop and maintain military fortifications, not the least ofwhich was critical in defending New York Harbor during the War of 1812. What they built in the harbor kept British captains away from the city and was later used as an island to showcase an American landmark-the Statue of Liberty.

During its history, the Army Corps has explored uncharted territories, mapped our nation's vast expansion, and controlled the nation's river systems.  The Corps remains vital and employs over 35,000 people today.

Science and Engineering are at the "core" of our nation's development.  What can we do in our classes to inspire our students to be a part of the Army Corps of Engineers or some other similar service to others through their interest in science?  Let's inspire new generations to chart, explore, and serve our country in scientific work.  ~MW for PM!