Word: achievas
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...your story on the Achieva college Prep Centers [EDUCATION, Nov. 1]: I would like to correct a misconception about Silver Creek High School. I was quoted as saying Silver Creek is thinking of hiring Achieva "not only for test prep but also to teach reading and writing skills." We hired Achieva not to supplant what our staff already does, and certainly not to rescue us, but instead to assist us in our focus on success for all students. If that part is controversial, then so be it. We are pleased with what Achieva has done so far, and we will...
Another concern is that counseling could cross the line into cheating. "Counseling helps you explain away the difficulties in your record and highlight your best features," defines Andy Rosen, CEO of Kaplan. But when does "editing" become writing a student's essays for him? Achieva insists that it only gives guidance and makes students do Internet and college-guide research and their own writing. Still, Andy Lutz, a vice president at the Princeton Review, admits the distinction is tricky. "There's a line between suggesting and rewriting," he says. "But it's a gray area...
...what does it mean for Achieva to be coming to the rescue of some public schools? It has become routine for schools to hire private companies to do, say, catering and security. But when the seven high schools in San Jose's East Side Union school district contracted with Achieva for college counseling, it marked perhaps the first time a business had been hired in public schools to handle an academic area. And this year Fred deFuniak, principal of Silver Creek High School, is thinking of hiring Achieva not only for test prep but also to teach reading and writing...
DeFuniak says hiring Achieva is a bid not only for better results but also for efficiency. For $60,000, he can add one new guidance counselor, which would just reduce the student-to-counselor ratio to 650 to 1. Moreover, the person hired would be saddled not only with giving college advice but also with staying on top of disciplinary and psychological problems. For the same amount of money, DeFuniak is planning to employ three Achieva counselors to do only test prep, a service he expects to translate into a 50-point jump in SAT scores. He says such gains...
Nicholas Lemann, author of The Big Test, a look at the SAT and educational meritocracy, says Achieva's success is the result of crazed but confused parents. Only nine universities take less than a quarter of applicants. In fact, 1,900 of the 2,100 four- year colleges accept at least half those who apply. Thus it is the families, more than most schools, that can afford to be selective. But then there is the perception that unless a kid goes to Harvard, his life is over. "The parents get obsessed, which makes the kids obsessed," says Lemann. "It turns...