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Dear d.tech families:
As summer approaches and our 9th graders become 10th graders and the 10th graders look toward junior year, I want to build off of the presentation last Friday about SAT and ACT test prep. Last week students and parents had a great chance to learn more about these tests, and we've already had a sense of college admission stress setting in among our families. We are going to do our best to decrease the anxiety associated with the college application process by providing students and families as much information as possible. With regards to standardized tests, while we feel that these tests do not accurately assess knowledge and skills and over 850 colleges and universities have a test optional admissions process (www.fairtest.org), the reality is that the tests do still play some role in admissions at many colleges. Therefore it is important for students to understand the test and how it is viewed by the colleges to which they wish to apply.
It is even more important that students understand other factors impacting college admissions, most importantly challenge and rigor. One way colleges evaluate challenge and rigor is to look at what courses are offered at a school, what courses the student took and how the student did in those courses. It's important to note that the transcript is only one way for a student to demonstrate challenge and rigor. d.tech gives students numerous opportunities to display challenge and rigor beyond their course load at d.tech. One of primary ways we do this is our active partnership with the local community colleges. As Skyline president Dr. Regina Stanback Stroud told our students last year, concurrent college enrollment(CCE) is a great opportunity to demonstrate challenge and rigor and to gain college credits for free while still in high school.
You may remember hearing at our info sessions that we offer CCE rather than AP. When preparing to launch d.tech we found that schools such as Crystal Springs and Lick-Wilmerding were phasing out AP classes, and Nueva was not going to offer them in their upper school. We agree with Lick-Wilmerding that "the AP program has become a limiting, rather than an enriching, factor in [a] school’s determination to provide a true 21st Century educational experience for its 21st Century students." We also consulted with Charlie Nolan, the long-time dean of admissions at Olin and others to ensure that this was the best path for the students in our program. The decision not to offer AP classes was reconfirmed by the speakers at our college admissions officer panel discussion earlier this year.
Our 10th grade parents are going to hear a lot of college admissions rumors and horror-stories the next two years, and we encourage you to continue to attend all of our college admission panels to stay up-to-date.
Have a great week,
Ken
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Hear Ye, Hear Ye:
Futsal (indoor soccer)
As your student receives their upcoming June Intersession course assignments, please sign up to be an Intersession Driver! We can use everyone's help, whether it be for just one day or the full session! Intersession classes will not happen without your support. Please sign up now. The kids are counting on you.
