Chapter 12 - Preparing for College
PRE-COLLEGE ENRICHMENT PROGRAMS
Enrichment programs such as Advanced Placement (AP) or the International Baccalaureate (IB) enable educators to recognize differences among students and to offer the more academically able student appropriately demanding academic opportunities. Enrichment programs also provide a stimulus, a vehicle, and a measure of an educational system's services to its college-bound students. These programs give students the opportunity to pursue college-level studies and to receive advanced placement and/or credit upon entering college.
The Advanced Placement Program
A school participating in the AP program uses course descriptions prepared by a committee of teachers appointed by the College Board to set up introductory college courses in one or more of the following 14 fields: art, biology, chemistry, computer science, English, French, German, government/politics, history, Latin, mathematics, music, physics, and Spanish. The AP examinations are administered in May by the Educational Testing Service. Tests are graded on a five-point scale in June, and the grades are sent to the students, their high schools, and their designated colleges in July. The test is described in Chapter 3 of this book. The AP program is available in most Washington area public and private secondary schools. Any overseas school may participate in the AP program by appointing an AP coordinator and ordering the examinations. It is possible to use the supplemental allowance to help set up an AP program at a school in a post where it is not offered.
Resources
Advanced Placement course description booklets:
School Administrator's Guide to the Advanced Placement Program;
Guide to the Advanced Placement Program; and
Sophomore Standing Through Advanced Placement.Contact:
Educational Testing Service
Corporate Headquarters
Rosedale Road
Princeton, NJ 08541
Tel: 609-921-9000
FAX: 609-734-5410
E-mail: etsinfo@ets.org
Web site: http://www.ets.org
The International Baccalaureate (IB) Program
The IB is a course of study designed by the International Baccalaureate Office based in Geneva, Switzerland. It was established with the cooperation of UNESCO, the Oxford and Cambridge Boards of the General Certificate of Education, and the Advanced Placement program of the College Board. The program is offered in schools around the world.
The IB operates during the last 2 years of secondary school. It offers academically challenging courses that emphasize the philosophy of learning and the integration of disciplines. The IB Diploma is recognized for university admission throughout the world and for course credit at colleges and universities in Canada and the United States. Its greatest value, however, lies in its intrinsic worth as a challenge and a symbol of the greater achievement to which students and teachers aspire.
Because the curriculum is demanding, it is generally recommended that students have at least a B average when applying for the program. Motivation and good study habits are highly desirable. The student takes a first language (usually the native language), a second modern language, the Study of Man, experimental sciences, mathematics, and electives. Students must also take Theory of Knowledge, a unique course created for the IB program. In this course, students reflect on their secondary school experience in a comparative and critical way, investigating the knowledge, claims, and judgments of logic, mathematics, natural and social sciences, history, ethics, and aesthetics. The course concludes with an examination of opinion, faith, belief, and truth. IB students are also required to undertake independent work in one of the subjects they study, to prepare an extended essay or research report to be assessed by an examiner, and to spend the equivalent of at least one afternoon a week in some creative or aesthetic experience, or in a social service activity.
Students who do not want to fulfill the IB Diploma requirements can receive a certificate for each IB course and examination taken. Both the IB Diploma and the certificates with qualifying grades are recognized by many colleges and universities for individual course credit or advanced placement.
Several high schools in the Washington area now offer the IB. George Mason, the public High School in Falls Church City, and the Washington International School, a private school in D.C., have offered it for many years. In addition, the following public high schools offer the IB: Richard Montgomery in Rockville (Montgomery County); Central, Laurel, Parkdale, and Suitland (Prince George's County); Stonewall Jackson in Manassas (Prince William County); Jeb Stuart and Mt. Vernon in Alexandria (Fairfax County). Arlington County plans to offer the IB at Washington and Lee High School beginning in 1996.
Resources
International Baccalaureate Organization
North America Regional Office
475 Riverside Drive, Suite 1600
New York, NY 10115
Tel: 212-696-4464
Fax: 212-889-9242
E-mail: ibna@ibo.org
Web site: http://www.ibo.org/ibo/index.cfm/en/ibo/about/offices/offices_northamerica
COLLEGE PREPARATORY SUBJECTS
English, the arts, mathematics, science, social studies, and foreign languages are the core of the college preparatory curriculum. A firm grasp of English grammar and patterns of usage is essential. Students should be able to read analytically seeing relationships between form and content, and understand a range of literature representing different literary forms and cultures.
Students should be able to understand and appreciate the unique qualities of the arts (visual arts, theater, music, and dance), how cultures express themselves through art, and how different artistic styles influence and are influenced by social and intellectual styles.
A strong preparation in mathematics is essential in today's world, and opens a wide range of career choices. College entrants will need statistics, algebra, geometry, and functions.
Comprehending and discussing developments such as nuclear power, genetic engineering, robotics, information and data processing, or organ transplants requires a knowledge and understanding of science and its methods. College entrants need detailed knowledge of at least one field of science, either biology, chemistry, physics, or earth science, or one of the newer interdisciplinary fields.
In order to perform effectively as citizens, students must have a grounding in social studies, specifically, a general knowledge of political, social, and cultural history, world history, geography and cultures, and U.S. history and government. Students should understand major political and economic institutions and their historical development, social and cultural history, major trends in the contemporary world, and the variety of written, numerical, and visual forms of data, techniques of quantitative and non-quantitative analysis, and diverse interpretations of data.
Knowledge of a foreign language permits informal communication and facilitates the exchange of ideas and information. Language and culture study allow the student to ask and answer questions and conduct a simple conversation, to pronounce the language well enough to be understood, to understand simple questions and statements in the foreign language, to read and understand information in a single paragraph and to deal with everyday situations in the culture.
The College Board's Academic Preparation series, listed below, can provide a yardstick for Foreign Service parents moving from post to post on whether their children are acquiring the skills necessary to be successful in college.
Resources
Academic Preparation for College: What Students Need to Know
The College Board
45 Columbus Avenue
New York, NY 10023
Tel: 212-713-8000
Web site: http://www.collegeboard.com
ACADEMIC PREPARATION FOR COLLEGE
In 1980, the College Board made an explicit commitment to strengthening every student's academic preparation for college. Through its Education EQuality Project, the Board worked out basic academic competencies and subject areas needed by entrants to all post-secondary institutions. The College Board booklet, Academic Preparation for College: What Students Need to Know and Be Able To Do, describes in detail the knowledge and skills needed to succeed in college. The main points are summarized below. This information should be a useful measure of whether a school is providing adequate college preparation.
Basic study skills include the ability to "learn how to learn." The college-bound student must be able to do the following:
- Set study goals and priorities, establish surroundings and habits conducive to independent learning, and follow a schedule.
- Use resources outside the classroom and incorporate such resources in the learning process.
- Develop and use general and specialized vocabularies.
- Understand and follow customary instructions; comprehend, analyze, and report main ideas; and synthesize and apply knowledge to new situations.
- Prepare for various types of examinations.
- Accept and learn from constructive criticism.
Reading skills include the ability to identify and comprehend ideas, to recognize different writing purposes and methods, and to separate one's personal opinions and assumptions from a writer's. The student should be able to use a book's table of contents, preface, index, glossary, appendix, and bibliography.
Writing skills should include the ability to conceive, organize, select, and relate ideas and to outline and develop them in coherent paragraphs. The student should be able to vary his/her writing style for different purposes, to restructure and rewrite, to gather information from primary and secondary sources, to cite sources properly, and to quote, paraphrase, and summarize accurately.
Speaking and listening skills include the ability to exchange ideas, to answer and ask questions coherently and concisely, to identify and understand main and subordinate ideas, to choose and organize related ideas and present them clearly in Standard English, and to evaluate similar presentations by others.
Mathematical skills allow a student to add, subtract, multiply, and divide using natural numbers, fractions, decimals, and integers. The student should be able to make estimates and approximations, formulate and solve problems in mathematical terms, select and use problem-solving tools such as mental computation, trial and error, calculators and computers, and use elementary concepts of probabilities and statistics.
Reasoning skills necessary for college include the ability to identify and formulate problems, evaluate and propose solutions, recognize and use inductive and deductive reasoning, to recognize fallacies, draw reasonable conclusions from written and spoken sources, and distinguish between fact and opinion.
STANDARDIZED TESTING FOR COLLEGE
Colleges have different standardized test requirements for their applicants. College admission guidebooks indicate which colleges require which tests. It is best if testing requirements can be determined early in the 11th grade so that the student knows both the test dates and the registration deadlines. The standardized tests commonly used for college admission (the SAT I, the SAT II, and the ACT) are described in Chapter 3 of this book. Some state colleges have additional test requirements; information should be requested from the state education agency or the individual college.
RESOURCES
The College Board offers online resources for college planning and financing. Visit them at http://www.collegeboard.com
The U.S. Department of Education publishes a resource book entitled Preparing Your Child for College available at http://www.edpubs.ed.gov/webstore/Content/search.asp Search for College resources in their online bookstore.
Information provided by the Family Liaison Office
Contact the Family Liaison Office
The Office of Electronic Information, Bureau of Public Affairs, manages this site as a portal for information from the U.S. State Department. External links to other Internet sites should not be construed as an endorsement of the views or privacy policies contained therein.