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Stanley Kaplan: Remembering a Test Prep Pioneer

February 24th, 2010 at 09:08am Under Education report

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He created an industry to prepare students for admissions tests in higher education. He died last month at age 90. Transcript of radio broadcast: 16 September 2009

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

Here is a question for a college admissions test. Who was Stanley Kaplan? Did he A) start a test preparation company, B) start the test preparation industry, or C) die last month at age ninety? The correct answer is D) all of the above.

Stanley Kaplan

Stanley Kaplan was an educator and private tutor. In the nineteen forties, he began preparing students for the Scholastic Aptitude Test, now just called the SAT.

His parents were European immigrants who did not go to college, and he himself was rejected from medical school. He thought all Americans should have an equal chance at the best colleges, not just children of wealthy families.

These days, more students go to college. Yet wealthier families are the ones best able to pay for test preparation. Many programs cost up to one thousand dollars or more, though some are available for poor families.

Parents may hate the whole idea, but they feel nervous seeing others doing it. Then, after college, there are graduate admissions tests to prepare for.

How much do American spend on this largely unsupervised industry? At least one billion dollars a year, estimates David Hawkins at the National Association for College Admission Counseling. The research company Outsell puts the amount at two and a half billion.

The two biggest providers in the United States — Kaplan and Princeton Review — both operate in more than twenty countries.

Thirty years ago, the Federal Trade Commission found that Stanley Kaplan’s program could raise SAT scores — but only by about twenty-five points. The association for college admission counseling recently found a thirty-point increase with Kaplan and other programs.

Still, the group says this is not enough to make a difference for most students. It might help some get into a top college, but only if they have above-average scores in the first place. The report suggested saving money by considering “less costly forms” of test preparation.

Now, more about our story last week on President Obama’s nationally broadcast speech to students. We noted that many conservatives raised objections before the speech. But in nineteen ninety-one, Democrats accused President George H.W. Bush of using the last such speech for political purposes.

Then as now, Democrats led Congress. They demanded an investigation. It found no misuse of public money to support the speech.

And that’s the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. I’m Steve Ember.

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Getting Students Excited About a Life in the Biosciences

February 6th, 2010 at 08:42am Under Education report

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The biotechnology industry says U.S. schools need to do a better job with bioscience education. Also, meet ”America’s Top Young Scientist” (she is still in middle school.) Transcript of radio broadcast: 15 October 2009

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

The American biotechnology industry recently did a study of bioscience education across the country. The biosciences are biology and other sciences that deal with living organisms.

Paul Hanle is president of the Biotechnology Institute, one of the groups that did the study. He says international tests show that the United States is performing twenty-fifth out of thirty developed countries in science education.

A new study says schools are not doing enough to teach bioscience

So the new findings may be no surprise. The study found that many schools are not doing enough to get students interested in bioscience or to prepare them to study it in college.

But the report said a number of the fifty states perform much better than others. Eight were rated as leaders: Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Vermont and Wisconsin.

Paul Hanle says increasing the numbers of bioscience graduates could help the economy grow. He says there are many high-paying jobs in the biosciences. And some lower-paying jobs require only two years of college, or even a technical education program in high school.

Now here is a way to get students excited — or more excited — about science. Offer them fifty thousand dollars in savings bonds and the ceremonial title of “America’s Top Young Scientist.”

Ten children ages eight to fourteen were in New York recently for the finals of this year’s Discovery/3M Young Scientist Challenge. Middle school students from every state entered the competition, sending in videotaped ideas. Officials said the five hundred students who entered were judged as much on their communication skills as for the scientific talent they showed.

Top winner Marina Dimitrov, with duct-taped structure

The ten finalists presented their inventions — made of common household products — then competed in a series of events. The last three finalists each had fifty minutes to create a tall structure to hold an egg even when shaken with earthquake force.

All three eggs fell or broke. But all the structures remained standing — thanks in large part to the large amounts of duct tape used by the students.

In the end, Nico Seamons and Nikita Gaurev shared second place. Marina Dimitrov won the top prize.

MARINA DIMITROV: “I just think it’s really important to get kids excited about science at an early age, because they might be the next Albert Einstein or Isaac Newton, or America’s top young scientist. It’s just that I want to show that ordinary kids can do extraordinary things.”

And that’s the VOA Special English Education Report. You can find our reports with transcripts and podcasts — and share comments — at voaspecialenglish.com. You can also follow us on Twitter and YouTube. I’m Jim Tedder.

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