ACT Score Report Changes for 2015
What a time of flux in the world of multiple choice math, reading, and grammar! Just months after the College Board announced drastic revisions to the world’s oldest college admissions mega-test, their surging competitor in Iowa City let’s us know that we’ll be seeing some new numbers on the ACT score report ACT, Inc. has long pegged scores in each section of the test to College Readiness Benchmarks, basically indicators of various levels of success in related entry-level college courses. Starting some unspecified time in 2015, the organization will provide additional readiness indicators to describe student performance and predicted readiness levels in various categories: STEM Score (overall performance on the science and math portions of the exam) English Language Arts Score (overall performance on the English, reading and writing portions of the exam) Progress Toward Career Readiness Indicator (a measure of progress toward career readiness) Text Complexity Progress Indicator (a…
What it Feels Like to Lose Yourself in Your Work
Have you ever experienced one or more of these symptoms? No spontaneous thought An intensified, fixed, internalized awareness An expansion of especially clear awareness into ambient space The disappearance of the bodily self A distinctive closing off of all sight and sound A deep, blissful serenity A marked slowing or cessation of respiration Don’t worry: you weren’t abducted by aliens (I hope). Instead, you attained that elusive and magical state of flow that only comes from total absorption. Some associate this state with the deep internal absorption that comes from skilled meditation. Others refer to it as the Coder’s High. But you don’t need to live in Tibet or work in Silicon Valley to find this bliss. The flow state finds us when we are fully absorbed in accomplishing a complex and worthy task. Great works of art may be immersive but not truly absorbing unless we’re creating them. The flow state is…
College-Bound Buzz (June 2014)
What’s going down for the college-bound? Not much, unless you work at Starbucks and want to get an online degree… Starbucks Coffee Co. today announces an unusually large tuition reimbursement for employees. It’s in partnership with Arizona State University’s highly ranked online program. Starbucks employees who sign up for ASU’s online courses as freshmen or sophomores will get a partial scholarship plus need-based financial aid; entering juniors and seniors with previous college credits will be able to finish their degrees with the public university for free. (full article) And if you’re thinking of majoring in certain social sciences or humanities programs, just make sure you’re not in it for the money… Salary.com suggests that you should carefully consider the college degree you take, and factor in the potential return on investment (ROI). Research shows that some degrees are unlikely to lead to a well-paid job. The list ranks salary…